implicit theories

Considering the facilitative role of corrective feedback in language learning, the impact of learners’ noticing on its effectiveness, and the significant contributions of individual attributes in learners’ noticing the corrective feedback, this study is designed to examine how learners’ implicit theories of intelligence (Mindset), an individual attribute, predict their preferences for oral corrective feedback (henceforth, OCF). A total of 143 Iranian EFL learners participated in the study. The participants were assigned to groups of fixed mindset (N=26) and growth mindset (N=26) based on their scores on Language Mindset Inventory (LMI) scale. The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively. The results indicated that there were significant differences between the fixed-mindset and the growth-mindset groups in their beliefs toward some aspects of OCF. All in all, it can be claimed that language mindset (henceforth, LM) has a significant role in EFL learners’ beliefs about OCF. Pedagogical implications for considering learners’ LM in providing OCF are also discussed.

Many difficulties learners experience during language learning interfere with their performance, and those associated with their psychology play an integral role in this process. Underpinned by Bandura’s social cognitive theory and Dweck’s implicit theory of intelligence, this article explored how language mindsets influenced female EFL learners’ cognitive engagement through the mediation of risk-taking. Following a quantitative design and drawing on stratified sampling, the researchers ran the Power Analysis Calculator and selected 384 language learners from six institutes of Tabriz, Iran. The data were collected by three questionnaires, including the Language Mindset Inventory of Lou and Noels (2017), University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI) designed by Maroco et al., (2016), and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) of Patton, Stanford and Barratt (1995). The PLS-SEM analysis showed that learners’ growth mindsets were directly related to cognitive engagement. Furthermore, risk-taking significantly mediated this relationship. This finding provides some implications for school psychology to develop in students self-theories that highlight growth and competence instead of limitation and inactivity.