Exploring L2 grit in the Chinese EFL context

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Abstract

Grit, viz. a combination of perseverance and passion for long-term goals, is a psychological variable that has recently attracted scholarly attention. Research along this psychological line is significant because it complements the rich on-going research on cognitive variables. The seminal research by Plonsky (2018) and colleagues has validated an instrument to measure what they call ‘L2 grit’ in the Iranian EFL context. As a partial replication of the above research in the Chinese context, the present study confirmed the two-fold structure of L2 grit identified in the seminal research, and found that the selected socio-biographical variables (e.g. multilingualism, L2 joy, age, and gender) were linked to L2 grit to varying degrees. Additionally, this study proposes providing a range of effect sizes for each predictor in hierarchical regression as a more refined data analysis approach. Suggestions (e.g. considering a wider multilingual population) are made for future research.

Introduction

How a language learner’s cognitions, affections, and behavioural intentions influence language learning has long interested applied linguistics researchers (Teimouri, Plonsky, & Tabandeh, 2020). These three broad strands of individual differences (IDs) on the part of the learner comprise a myriad of specific ID variables, cognitive and non-cognitive. Some IDs have been frequently examined, including second/third language (L2/L3) motivation (Bui & Teng, 2019; Masgoret & Gardner, 2003), aptitude (Li, 2016), and anxiety (Dewaele et al., 2018; Teimouri et al. (2019). However, personality traits have been much less studied than other IDs.

In the field of applied linguistics, two distinct lines of research pertaining to personality can be identified: (1) the research tradition focused on personality factors as the independent variables, with language achievement variables being the dependent ones (cf. Baker, 1996; Gardner, 1985), (2) an emerging line of inquiry treating personality factors as the dependent variables (Dewaele, 2012; Dewaele & Jan Pieter van Oudenhoven, 2009; Wei & Hu, 2019. In light of the ‘dynamic interaction between personality and L2 proficiency’ (Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015, 33), both types of research are valuable because they provide useful information concerning the psychological profiles of language learners, and complement the rich ongoing research on cognitive IDs (e.g. Bialystok et al., 2012; Valian, 2015) in language learning. The present study, focusing upon a personality variable ‘L2 grit’, contributes to this current body of research concerning personality traits in language learning.

L2 grit, a newly proposed construct within the field of applied linguistics, is similar to but different from the well-researched concept known as ‘grit’ in the field of psychology. Grit is ‘a combination of perseverance and passion for long-term goals’ (Duckworth et al., 2007). Teimouri et al. (2020) have highlighted the benefits of using domain-specific scales to assess language learners’ personality, and developed an L2 grit instrument. Partially replicating their seminal research, this study aims to contribute to three major areas. First, it adds to the body of research concerning lower-order¹ personality traits. In applied linguistics, studies have predominantly investigated higher-order personality traits, but most recently, research efforts have been re-oriented towards lower-order ones. This important shift has taken place because ‘a large proportion of the meaningful findings relating personality to L2 achievement has emerged with lower-order personality constructs’ (Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015, 34). Second, the present study adds to our understanding of the psychological profiles of multilinguals in China, an ‘under-investigated’ context (Wei & Hu, 2019), where the number of English-knowing Chinese already exceeded 390 million in 2000 (Wei & Su, 2015). Third, focusing upon the Chinese EFL context, this study is the first (partial) replication of Teimouri et al. (2020)’s research of L2 grit. Although the validity and reliability of the L2 grit scale have been confirmed in the Iranian EFL context, it is useful to re-examine its applicability in other EFL contexts.

Section snippets

Literature review

This section reviews research concerning grit from the field of applied linguistics and beyond. As there has hitherto been only one empirical study conducted on L2 grit (as opposed to grit), this and other relevant studies of similar personality traits (e.g. tolerance of ambiguity and joy) will be reviewed.

Research questions

RQ1: In the Chinese EFL context, what are the underlying factors of the L2 grit scale?

RQ2: To what extent does language competence (operationalised respectively as GMM and self-rated proficiency in English) predict L2 grit?

RQ3: To what extent do selected sociobiographical variables other than language competence (e.g. age) predict L2 grit?

Participants

A total of 462 Chinese participants were surveyed (125 males, 337 females), ranging from 18 to 52 in age (mean = 24.22, SD = 4.394). At the time of the

The factorial structure of the L2 grit scale

The assumptions for factor analysis were first checked. The KMO test (.844), Bartlett’s test of sphericity (χ² (36) = 2264.503, p < .0005), and the sample-size-to-variables ratio (51.3) indicated that the data can be used for factor analysis. Principle Component Analysis was applied as the factor extraction method. As the factors were presumed to be interrelated, which is predictable ‘for naturalistic data, and certainly for any data involving humans’ (Field, 2009, 644), the direct oblimin

Conclusion

The present study has built upon the seminal research of Plonsky and colleagues (Plonsky, 2018; Teimouri et al., 2020) in the Iranian EFL context by partially replicating it in the Chinese EFL context. It has identified a two-fold structure of L2 grit amongst English-knowing multilinguals in another EFL context, confirming the factorial structure of L2 grit found in the original EFL context. This partial replication has also examined the links between selected sociobiographical variables and L2

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to extend their sincere thanks to the anonymous reviewers, the editor, Professor Hugo Baetens Beardsmore, and Mr. Austin Pack for their constructive comments on an earlier version of this paper. All remaining inadequacies are the authors’ responsibility. The writing of this paper was supported by the Educational Science Research Fund of Jiangsu Province(D/2018/01/18).