Growth mindset and emotions in tandem: Their effects on L2 writing performance based on writers’ proficiency levels

Abstract

A growth mindset (GM), defined as an individual’s perception that their intellectual ability is malleable, has been the subject of extensive research attention, as it can facilitate learning in many contexts. GM has been found to have more pronounced positive effects on students with lower-level writing proficiency. Emotions have also been found to play a significant role in second language (L2) writing. We conducted an innovative investigation of the relationships between GM, emotions related to writing (enjoyment and anxiety), and writing performance. The results of our study involving 589 Chinese 12th-graders and L2 writing tasks showed that GM was positively associated with enjoyment and negatively associated with anxiety. When assessing students grouped according to their writing performance (high, middle, and low), we found an indirect positive path from GM to writing performance via anxiety in the middle-level group and via enjoyment in the low-level group. The findings suggest that GM can promote enjoyment and mitigate anxiety, therefore facilitating L2 writing performance. The pedagogical implications are that teachers should encourage students to develop a GM and foster their social–emotional learning.