Relationships Among Senior High Students’ L2 Grit,Self-Regulated Learning And English Academic Achievement

As the research on positive psychology bloomed recently,learners’ positive personality traits have gained increasing attention from researchers.Researchers claim that grit is a positive personality trait combining perseverance of effort and consistency of interest for long-term goals and it is closely related to academic achievement.Meanwhile,learners can also attain better academic achievement through proactively employing selfregulated learning(SRL)strategies.Therefore,in second language acquisition research,both second language(L2)grit and SRL are recognized as important factors influencing English learning.There have been researchers exploring their constructs,categorizations,effects,and relationships with other variables respectively.Nevertheless,the research findings are inconsistent and most importantly,few researchers have paid attention to the relationships and mechanism among L2 grit,SRL and English academic achievement.Therefore,this study aims to explore the relationships among senior high students’ L2 grit,SRL,and English academic achievement by collecting data from a middle school in southern China,in hope of providing practical implications for English education.This study combines quantitative and qualitative research methods to survey 181 senior high students from a middle school in southern China with two questionnaires,the L2 grit scale and the Questionnaire of English Self-Regulated Learning Strategies(QESRLS).After analyzing the quantitative data,eight participants are purposely selected to participate in semi-structured interviews.This study is to address three research questions:1)What is the status quo of senior high students’ L2 grit and SRL in English learning?2)What are the relationships among senior high students’ L2 grit,SRL,and English academic achievement?3)Does SRL mediate the relationship between senior high students’ L2 grit and English academic achievement?It is found that 1)senior high students’ overall L2 grit and both facets are at a medium level.Gender difference exists in the overall L2 grit and the perseverance of effort facet,in which female participants are at a higher level than male participants.Senior high students’ overall SRL and all SRL strategies are at a medium level except self-consequence which is at a high level.Gender difference exists in the overall SRL and four types of SRL strategies including goal setting and planning,organization and transformation,seeking opportunities to practice English,and seeking social assistance,in which female participants outperform male participants.2)Positive correlations were found among L2 grit,SRL and English academic achievement.Furthermore,both L2 grit and SRL can positively predict English academic achievement.Meanwhile,L2 grit is also a positive predictor of SRL.3)SRL is a partial mediator on the relationship between L2 grit and English academic achievement.This study sorts out the relationships among L2 grit,SRL and English academic achievement and adds to the limited research on L2 grit and SRL.Furthermore,it sheds light on the practice of cultivating students’ L2 grit and improving students’ SRL ability in English education.