Mu-Hsuan Chou

With the rise of positive psychology, increasing attention has been directed toward the role of positive emotions in fostering personal growth and well-being in second and foreign language learning. Although the PERMA and PERMA+4 frameworks offer valuable perspectives on well-being, they primarily emphasize positive constructs, leaving negative emotions and fixed mindsets largely unexplored. This gap is significant, as both positive and negative emotions, as well as growth and fixed mindsets, jointly shape learners’ psychological experiences. This study examined the effects of growth and fixed language mindsets on university students’ sense of accomplishment in English learning, with positive and negative achievement emotions and student engagement serving as sequential mediators. Using a short-term longitudinal design, large-scale quantitative questionnaire data were collected at 3 time points over an 18-week semester from 501 university students in Taiwan to assess second-language (L2) mindsets (Time 1), achievement emotions (Time 2), and engagement and sense of accomplishment (Time 3). Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and mediation analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS and AMOS. Structural equation modeling revealed that students with growth mindsets experienced stronger positive emotions, weaker negative emotions, greater engagement, and higher accomplishment in English learning. In contrast, fixed mindsets did not predict positive emotions or accomplishment but positively predicted negative emotions. Sequential mediation analyses showed that positive emotions and engagement together exerted the strongest indirect effect, followed by positive emotions alone and negative emotions combined with engagement. No mediating effects were found for fixed mindsets. These findings extend the PERMA+4 framework by highlighting the differential roles of adaptive and maladaptive emotions and mindsets in explaining well-being and accomplishment in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learning.

Achievement goals play a crucial role in higher education, shaping students' self-perceived competence, knowledge mastery, and academic performance. In English-Medium Instruction (EMI) contexts, students' motivation to engage with academic textbooks is further influenced by subject-specific knowledge and linguistic challenges. This study examines the predictive roles of achievement goals, reading efficacy, reading involvement, and Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) strategies in university students' academic performance in an EMI course. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 256 university students enrolled in an EMI course in Taiwan. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that reading efficacy was the strongest predictor of academic achievement, followed by performance-avoidance goals, organization strategies, reading involvement, and time/study environment strategies. Students perceived elaboration and organization as the most effective SRL strategies, whereas effort regulation and time/study environment strategies were rated less effective. Additionally, students' views on metacognitive self-regulation strategies varied, with their effectiveness largely depending on students' comprehension of English and course content. These findings offer insights into the interplay between motivation, reading engagement, and SRL strategies in EMI contexts, highlighting the need for targeted instructional support to enhance students' self-regulated learning and academic success.

Learners’ English proficiency can be shaped by social environments, motivational factors, and emotions. According to situated expectancy-value theory, students’ expectations of success and subjective task values (STVs) influence academic performance. Achievement emotions, which refer to emotions directly related to learning activities or outcomes, also play a crucial role. This study examines the roles of STVs, duration of private English tutoring, and achievement emotions in predicting English achievement among primary school students in Taiwan. Additionally, it explores the types of STVs and achievement emotions experienced by young learners in English class. A total of 367 Grade 6 students participated in a questionnaire survey. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that the duration of private tutoring was the strongest positive predictor of English achievement, followed by emotions such as hope, anxiety, and hopelessness. Attainment value had the least predictive power. The duration of private tutoring was also positively associated with hope and negatively related to anger, anxiety, and boredom. It is recommended that instructional materials encourage students to reflect on task importance to foster a personal sense of relevance. Additionally, success-oriented tasks and positive feedback can help reduce classroom hopelessness and anxiety while fostering hope.

Language mindsets influence learners' behavior, motivation, and strategic approaches to studying a language. These mindsets impact how learners perceive control and value in achievement activities, which, in turn, affect their achievement emotions and ultimately their learning strategies and academic performance. This study investigates the effects of growth and fixed language mindsets on strategic approaches to studying English, with perceived academic control, task value, and positive/negative achievement emotions serving as mediators. Questionnaire surveys were administered to 517 university students in Taiwan. The structural models revealed that students with growth language mindsets exhibited stronger academic control and task value, experienced more positive emotions, and employed more study strategies. These factors partially mediated the relationship between growth language mindsets and study strategies. In contrast, fixed language mindsets did not predict task value or study strategies, but they negatively predicted academic control. No mediating effects were found between fixed language mindsets and study strategies.

This study explored the communication strategies of college students majoring in one of five modern foreign languages (i.e., English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish) and their relation to communication confidence. It also explored the association between their strategy use and the difficulty regarding the speaking components, and students’ feedback on pedagogical tasks to improve their speaking ability. A questionnaire survey of communication strategy was distributed to 538 college students in Taiwan, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 students. The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the majored language and the use of communication strategies. Specifically, a one-way between-groups MANOVA revealed that the participants adopted the message reduction/alteration and fluency-oriented strategies frequently and equally, regardless of the language they studied. English and Spanish learners employed social affective, phonological awareness, and negotiation for meaning while speaking strategies more frequently than German learners. Students who reported difficulties in fluency, lexical resources, grammatical accuracy, and pronunciation while speaking the major language employed social affective strategies less frequently. Finally, students’ preferences for particular tasks reflected the speaking components they wished to foster. It is concluded that lexical and grammatical knowledge should be emphasized first to build communication confidence and strengthen fluency.

Background: In English-medium instruction (EMI) classrooms, goal orientations, strategies, and communication play pivotal roles in facilitating effective learning. Achievement goal orientations (AGOs) guide and control learner competence-relevant behavior in academic performance. Communication strategies (CSs) are communication aids for learners to cope with problems or breakdowns while speaking the target language. Strategic competence is an indispensable affective-cognitive factor that promotes learners’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in a target language. Purpose: This study aims to investigate the role of AGOs and CSs in predicting WTC and the effect of English proficiency on AGOs and CSs in EMI classrooms. Methods: An online questionnaire survey regarding the perception of AGOs, CSs, and WTC was conducted with 595 university students taking one EMI course in social science and humanity domains in Taiwan. The items were on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’. Hierarchical multiple regression was adopted to predict WTC in EMI classrooms. One-way between-group MANOVAs were adopted to examine the individual and joint effect of English proficiency on the AGOs and CSs. Results: The hierarchical multiple regression model showed that task goal orientations and social affective strategies strongly and positively predicted the university students’ WTC in the EMI classroom. Performance-avoidance goal orientations and message reduction and alteration strategies were found to negatively predict WTC in EMI settings. Students’ English proficiency neither predicted their WTC nor affected their AGOs in the EMI classroom. High-proficiency students adopted accuracy-oriented, fluency-oriented, and negotiation for meaning while speaking strategies more frequently than low-proficiency students. Conclusion: It is suggested that a supportive and dynamic classroom environment with higher-order learning tasks involving cooperation, reflection, and objective assessment criteria can be incorporated into EMI programs. Besides, instruction in CSs and the use of multimedia teaching aids can facilitate EFL learners’ comprehension of subject-specific materials and encourage them to engage more in EMI classrooms.