Language-specific grit: exploring psychometric properties, predictive validity, and differences across contexts

Ekaterina Sudina, Jason Brown, Brien Datzman, Yukiko Oki, Katherine Song, Robert Cavanaugh, Bala Thiruchelvam, Luke Plonsky

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

‘Grit’ has been identified as an important predictor of success in a number of academic and non-academic domains (Duckworth, A. L., C. Peterson, M. D. Matthews, and D. R. Kelly. 2007. “Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92: 1087–1101. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087). The present study responds to calls to examine language-specific (L2) grit. We investigated the factor structure of the L2-Grit Scale (Teimouri, Y., L. Plonsky, and F. Tabandeh. in press. “L2 Grit: Passion and Perseverance for Second-Language Learning.” Language Teaching Research, 1–26. doi:10.1177/1362168820921895) and examined the predictive validity of grit and three other individual differences in relation to English proficiency among second and foreign language learners from different countries. Factor analysis revealed a two-dimensional structure of the L2-Grit Scale. However, the correlation between the factors was stronger in the EFL than in the ESL sample. Moreover, the L2 grit subscales had differential predictive validity: Perseverance of Effort was a significant positive predictor of proficiency in the EFL context, while Consistency of Interest was a significant negative predictor in the ESL context. This study represents one of the first inquiries into L2 grit and how it relates to the learning context in particular.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)334-351
Number of pages18
JournalInnovation in Language Learning and Teaching
Volume15
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021

Keywords

  • EFL
  • ESL
  • L2 grit
  • language proficiency
  • learning context

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Education
  • Linguistics and Language

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