Understanding pre-adolescent learners’ foreign language enjoyment: a mixed-methods study on Chinese primary school students of English

The present study investigated the overall level and the underlying factors of pre-adolescent learners’ foreign language enjoyment. To this end, 277 Chinese primary school students in Years 3–6 completed a foreign language enjoyment scale and a questionnaire assessing nine student- and teacher-centered variables (Participants’ age was obtained from their parents or guardians). They also answered an open-ended question designed to elicit the causes of foreign language enjoyment. The quantitative results showed that the participants’ foreign language enjoyment was generally moderate-high. Boys and girls did not significantly differ in this emotion. Attitudes towards the foreign language, attitudes towards the foreign language teacher, and perceived relative standing among peers in foreign language proficiency significantly positively predicted foreign language enjoyment in descending order of magnitude, followed by age as a significant negative predictor. Teacher friendliness, joking, strictness, and predictability, and the teacher's foreign language use in class did not significantly predict foreign language enjoyment. The qualitative analysis revealed that foreign language enjoyment was linked to teacher- and peer-centered variables, classroom activities, perceived foreign language mastery, perceptions of learning tasks and materials, test result, classroom performance, personal affective states, and classroom atmosphere. The findings and their implications are discussed.