L2 grit and pragmatic comprehension among Chinese postgraduate learners: Enjoyment and anxiety as mediators

Abstract Comprehension of implicature may be challenging for L2 learners, which may be further influenced for by learners’ L2 grit and emotions. However, few studies have endeavored to determine the predictive impact of L2 grit, along with its closely associated emotional factors, such as enjoyment and anxiety, and investigate how these psychological factors jointly influence pragmatic comprehension. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the relationship between L2 grit and pragmatic comprehension, along with the mediating roles of enjoyment and anxiety in their interactions. The data were collected from 171 Chinese non‐English major postgraduate learners, a population that has been less pronounced in L2 pragmatics. The findings revealed that the perseverance of effort (PE) of L2 grit predicted pragmatic comprehension instead of the consistency of interest of L2 grit. Pragmatic comprehension was positively but weakly linked to enjoyment and shared negative and moderate associations with anxiety. Only anxiety mediated the interaction between PE and pragmatic comprehension. Implications for pragmatic instruction and suggestions for future research are discussed.