Teacher support, grit and L2 willingness to communicate: the mediating effect of foreign language enjoyment

Abstract Informed by some relevant theories of positive psychology, the current study examined the interrelations among teacher support, grit, and L2 willingness to communicate (WTC), focusing mainly on the mediating role of foreign language enjoyment (FLE). A sample of 619 university students in China participated in this cross-sectional survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the gathered data. The results showed that grit could directly and positively predict L2 WTC. Furthermore, teacher support and grit could affect L2 WTC via the mediating role of FLE. These findings served as empirical evidence from the second language acquisition (SLA) domain for positive psychology, revealing the influential mechanism shaping the interconnectedness among all the constructs. The study concluded with a discussion of pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research.