Grit

Given its key role in enhancing learners’ communicative competence, willingness to communicate (WTC) has received much research attention in the field of second language (L2) teaching and learning. Numerous studies have explored the antecedents of WTC in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. As an attempt to shed more light on this line of research, this study was set to investigate the effects of grit and foreign language anxiety as predictors of L2 WTC among Iranian EFL learners. For this purpose, a number of 163 undergraduate English major students from several universities participated in this survey. The required data were collected by distributing valid and reliable instruments measuring the three target variables (i.e., WTC, grit, and anxiety). A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was utilized to test the hypothesized structural models for the relations between these variables. The SEM results indicated that grit accounted for 10.6 % of the variance and FL anxiety explained 20% of the variance in the participants’ L2 WTC. Furthermore, the unique impact of foreign language anxiety on WTC was greater than that of grit. The implications of these findings for language teaching and learning are discussed at the end of the paper.

Academic Confidence, Grit and WTC of students play important roles in their second language achievement. This paper examined the role of academic confidence and grit in willingness to communicate of Iranian EFL students in different communicative and educational contexts. To this end, 385 EFL students responded to the relevant questionnaires. The analysis of the data revealed that the students with higher levels of academic confidence and grit had a higher L2 WTC in in-class, out-of-class, and online classrooms. The results also revealed that the students’ grit was a predictor of their L2 WTC in all communicative contexts, and the university students scored the highest, followed by language institute and senior secondary school students. Moreover, academic confidence and grit had significant relationship with L2 WTC of students in senior secondary schools, language institutes and universities. Another finding was that grit was a predictor of all groups’ L2 WTC, while academic confidence predicted L2 WTC of students in language institutes and universities. The results of this study have implications for EFL teachers.

Positive emotions are regarded as vital constructs in L2 learning. With the advent of positive psychology in SLA, the link between L2 grit and Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE), as an achievement emotion, has drawn the attention of numerous scholars. However, despite these investigations, what remains is to see to what extent this link can be accounted for by the control and value appraisals of classroom activities and tasks. In other words, what is the matter of debate is how L2 learners’ perseverance and consistency of interest during the performance of language tasks and activities can predict their enjoyment when they are in control of, or out of control of these activities and tasks. Given this gap, this conceptual study attempts to argue the need for the investigation of L2 grit and FLE in light of control-value theory (CVT) and its methodological orientation. These arguments can pave the way for future research on this link via the CVT framework and provide pedagogical and methodological implications for investigators, learners, teachers, teacher educators, educational policy-makers, and advisors to raise their awareness of how the proximal determinants of enjoyment in learning a foreign language can be realized in terms of their perseverance of effort and consistency of interest in achievement activities.