Measuring Chinese junior high school students' language mindsets: What can we learn from young EFL learners’ beliefs in their language ability?

Abstract

Students' language mindsets are an emerging research field in the analysis of language learners' beliefs. This study measured Chinese junior high school students' language mindsets in a sample of 646 students (M = 14.96, SD = 0.71; 49.8% female). Three major findings were obtained. First, with few adaptions, the language mindsets inventory (Lou & Noels, 2017) was a reliable, validated scale to measure Chinese junior high school students’ language mindsets. Second, students in this study were categorized into three groups (i.e., growth-mindset learners, fixed-mindset learners, and slight-growth-mindset learners) according to their complex patterns of language mindsets and perceived English competence. Growth-mindset learners had the highest perceived English competence, followed by slight-growth-mindset learners and fixed-mindset learners. Third, growth-mindset and slight-growth-mindset learners displayed mastery responses to challenging situations in learning English as a foreign language, mediated by the learning goal; the mindset of fixed-mindset learners, however, appeared to directly, rather than indirectly, predict their helpless responses. This study concludes with a discussion of the research findings and pedagogical suggestions.