Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

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Demystifying the predictive role of students’

perceived foreign language teacher support in
foreign language anxiety: The mediation of L2 grit

Honggang Liu, Xiaoxue Li & Yan Yan

To cite this article: Honggang Liu, Xiaoxue Li & Yan Yan (25 Jun 2023): Demystifying the
predictive role of students’ perceived foreign language teacher support in foreign language
anxiety: The mediation of L2 grit, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, DOI:
10.1080/01434632.2023.2223171

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2023.2223171

Published online: 25 Jun 2023.

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JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2023.2223171

Demystifying the predictive role of students’ perceived foreign

language teacher support in foreign language anxiety:
The mediation of L2 grit
Honggang Liua, Xiaoxue Lib and Yan Yanc
a
School of Foreign Languages, Soochow University, Soochow, People’s Republic of China; bSchool of Foreign
Languages, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China; cCollege of Education,
Changchun Normal University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Within students’ proximal social environment, the crucial role of their Received 17 April 2023
perceived foreign language teacher support in their academic learning Accepted 5 June 2023
has emerged in numerous empirical studies in recent decades. However,
KEYWORDS
little is known about the impact of perceived foreign language teacher students’ perceived foreign
support on academic emotions (e.g. foreign language anxiety; FLA). The language teacher support;
mediating role of personality (e.g. second language [L2] grit) also remains academic support;
unknown. To address these gaps, the current study adopted a instrumental support;
quantitative approach to investigate the impact of perceived foreign emotional support; foreign
language teacher support on their FLA and the mediating effect of L2 language anxiety; L2 grit
grit. We administered questionnaires to 1,401 Chinese high school
students learning English as a foreign language to measure their FLA, L2
grit, and three types of perceived foreign language teacher support –
namely, academic, emotional, and instrumental support. Structural
equation modelling results indicate that students’ perceived overall
foreign language teacher support had a direct positive predictive effect
on FLA, whereas three dimensions of teacher support could not directly
affect FLA alone. Mediation analysis results reveal that perceived
emotional and instrumental support could negatively affect FLA via the
complete mediating role of L2 grit. This study offers insights for teachers
to improve students’ academic learning experience.

Introduction
As a socializing process, foreign language learning is highly demanding, and learners may encoun­
ter unpredictable challenges. Social support seems to be a natural way to help individuals address
academic or psychological challenges (Malecki and Elliott 1999). Foreign language teachers as sig­
nificant others in students’ proximal social environment strongly influence their psychological
development and emotional states by providing adequate support and effective instruction, estab­
lishing high expectations, and so on (Pekrun 2006). Foreign language teacher support – a multidi­
mensional construct involving academic instruction, tangible assistance, and emotional care (Liu
and Li 2023) – has received increasing attention in recent years (e.g. Hejazi and Sadoughi 2022;
Jin and Dewaele 2018; Liu and Li 2023). Studies have gradually unveiled the essential role of foreign
language teacher support in students’ language learning and highlighted that language teacher sup­
port is so necessary because "successful learning may be very difficult, if not impossible" in the
absence of adequate teacher support (Piechurska-Kuciel 2013, p.84). Empirical evidence has

CONTACT Yan Yan [email protected] College of Education, Changchun Normal University, Changchun, Jilin Province
130032, People’s Republic of China
© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 H. LIU ET AL.

shown that students’ perceived foreign language teacher support has a significant impact on their
foreign language learning psychology, including but not limited to second language (L2) grit
(Hejazi and Sadoughi 2022; Shen and Guo 2022) and foreign language anxiety (FLA; Horwitz, Hor­
witz, and Cope 1986; Shao et al. 2023). The specific functions of different dimensions of language
teacher support in students’ personality development (e.g. L2 grit) and academic emotions (e.g.
FLA), however, remain unknown.
In recent years, second language acquisition (SLA) research has experienced an affective turn
(Pavlenko 2013) and witnessed the flowering of positive psychology (Dewaele, Chen et al. 2019).
In addition to traditional psychological variables, such as FLA (Dewaele, Botes, and Meftah
2023; 2019; Teimouri, Goetze, and Plonsky 2019) receiving continuing attention, positive psychologi­
cal factors, like L2 grit, flow, and resilience, have caught researchers’ attention (Liu and Han 2022; Liu
and Song 2021; Teimouri, Plonsky, and Tabandeh 2020; Teimouri, Sudina, and Plonsky 2021). Recent
studies have uncovered a range of social variables that influence FLA, such as teachers’ characteristics
(Dewaele, Magdalena, and Saito 2019), the emotional atmosphere in the foreign language classroom
(Effiong 2016), and the teaching modality (Resnik and Dewaele 2021). MacIntyre (2017) underlined
that FLA is both an internal state and a social construct, indicating that both learner-internal and
learner-external factors, such as personality, can affect FLA (e.g. Botes et al. 2023). Among those
learner-internal variables, L2 grit as a significant example of personality has been identified as a poss­
ible antecedent to the emotions students experience in the foreign language classroom (Khajavy and
Aghaee 2022; Liu et al. 2021; Liu and Wang 2021), which the control-value theory (CVT) of academic
emotions has substantiated (Pekrun 2006). However, there has been limited research exploring the
impact of critical social factors (e.g. perceived foreign language teacher support) on students’ psycho­
logical states (e.g. L2 grit and FLA) or the relationship between L2 grit and FLA. To fill these gaps, the
current study investigated the relationship between students’ perceived foreign language teacher
support and FLA as well as the mediating role of L2 grit.

Literature review
The social support model and perceived foreign language teacher support
Studies have shown that social support, an essential means of safeguarding individuals’ functioning
and buffering detrimental effects (Kelly and Malecki 2022; Rueger et al. 2016), exerts a substantial
impact on students’ foreign language learning, such as learning engagement (Luan et al. 2020), self-
efficacy, and academic achievement (Bai, Chao, and Wang 2019). Among these studies, Tardy
(1985) proposed a systematic theoretical framework, the social support model1, for analysing social
support, which later studies adopted. For instance, Malecki and Demaray (2003) explored the influ­
ence of social support from parents, teachers, classmates, close friends, schools, and other sources
on students’ social, behavioural, and academic outcomes. Among the different sources of social sup­
port, researchers have highlighted the significant role of teacher support in students’ intellectual
development and psychological states (Alfaro, Umana-Taylor, and Bámaca-Colbert 2006; Plunkett
et al. 2008). Researchers have used the social support model specifically to explore the vital role of
foreign language teacher support for students (Liu and Li 2023; Sadoughi and Hejazi 2022). Liu and
Li’s (2023) exploration contributed to the understanding of the nature of students’ perceived
foreign language teacher support via a newly developed scale with high reliability and validity.
They unfolded a trifactorial structure comprising academic support, instrumental support, and
emotional support. Academic support entails teachers’ help with students’ English learning in
terms of imparting subject-specific knowledge and providing feedback. Instrumental support
describes teachers’ provision of various auxiliary learning materials to students. Emotional support
refers to teachers’ trust, empathy, love, and care for students. Studies have shown that foreign
language teacher support fosters learners’ personality development (e.g. L2 grit; Hejazi and
Sadoughi 2022; Shen and Guo 2022) and reduces negative emotions (e.g. FLA; Dewaele, Magdalena,
 JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 3

and Saito 2019). However, uncertainty persists regarding the impact of particular dimensions of
teacher support on students’ L2 grit and FLA as well as the relationship between L2 grit and FLA.

Perceived foreign language teacher support and foreign language anxiety

Foreign language teachers are the primary agents in the immediate social surroundings where stu­
dents live and learn, interacting with and nurturing them by providing various support. Teacher
behaviours as predictors of students’ emotions in the classroom have received extensive scholarly
attention in the domain of foreign language learning, and studies have linked teacher-related vari­
ables, such as the frequency of using a foreign language, strictness, younger age, the target language
and its perception in the school community, and the teaching modality (online or in-person), to
negative emotions, such as anxiety (Dewaele, Magdalena, and Saito 2019; Resnik and Dewaele
2021). FLA, "a distinct complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours related to class­
room language learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process" (Horwitz,
Horwitz, and Cope 1986, p.128), is one of the most prevalent negative emotions that students
experience (Dewaele, Albakistani, and Ahmed 2022; Dewaele, Botes, and Greiff 2022). Horwitz,
Horwitz, and Cope (1986) remarked that FLA could be mitigated, at least partially, by a supportive
teacher who will sympathize with socially isolated or powerless students and give pertinent sugges­
tions for attaining language learning confidence. Furthermore, Shao et al. (2023) revealed that a per­
ceived chaotic teaching structure and perceived teacher technology competence had positive and
negative effects, respectively, on anxiety.
Unfortunately, there have been few studies on the impact of language teacher support on FLA.
Jin and Dewaele (2018) reported that teacher emotional support could not predict FLA. This could
be because they only measured emotional support, thus possibly neglecting the effects of other types
of support. The research subjects, university students, may also have played a part as they could
have limited communication with instructors due to their psychological maturity level or level of
study (Jin and Dewaele 2018). However, it is undeniable that environmental factors conveying
information related to controllability and academic values are critical for students’ emotions.
Accordingly, there is an assumption that language teachers, as significant members of students’
immediate social environment (Pekrun 2006), can improve students’ positive emotions and lessen
the impact of negative ones (e.g. FLA) by conducting effective instruction, delivering high expec­
tations, providing adequate support and so on. Therefore, the current study aimed to verify the pre­
dictive role of perceived foreign language teacher support in FLA.

Perceived foreign language teacher support and L2 grit

As essential participants in SLA, teachers play a crucial role by offering students various types of
support. Researchers have highlighted teachers’ critical role in utilizing various strategies to
enhance foreign language learners’ grit (Teimouri, Plonsky, and Tabandeh 2020; Teimouri, Taban­
deh, and Tahmouresi 2022). The research has provided considerable evidence of the essential role of
foreign language teacher support in students’ psychological development. Banse and Palacios’s
(2018) study highlighted the notable role of language teachers in displaying that grit can most
strongly predict Latino English language learners’ English/language arts achievement provided
that students perceive high levels of care and control from their teachers. Other studies have inves­
tigated whether students’ perceived foreign language teacher support could predict L2 grit (Hejazi
and Sadoughi 2022; Shen and Guo 2022). Shen and Guo (2022) delved into the impact of perceived
teacher support and teacher respect on language learners, disclosing the predictive effect of teacher
support on their levels of grit. Similarly, Hejazi and Sadoughi (2022) reported that perceived teacher
support could directly predict grit. Moreover, teacher support could indirectly influence grit with
the mediating role of foreign language enjoyment. Unfortunately, there has been minimal research
on the influence of specific dimensions of teacher support on L2 grit, and most researchers have
4 H. LIU ET AL.

explored the overall effect of teacher support. Therefore, this study examined the general and
specific dimensions of foreign language teacher support on L2 grit.

L2 grit and foreign language anxiety

L2 grit and FLA may be associated. Theoretically speaking, personality antecedents can influence
emotions by means of regulating control-value appraisals (Pekrun 2006). For instance, grittier stu­
dents are able to put in perseverance of effort (PE) and maintain consistency of interest (CI) in aca­
demic situations. In other words, gritty students achieve more control over academic activities,
perceive a stronger sense of the value of academic activities, and thus tend to experience positive
emotions. In contrast, students with lower levels of grit are less willing to make a sustained effort
and less interested in academic activities, resulting in unpleasant feelings (e.g. FLA). Besides these
theoretical insights, some empirical studies have confirmed the role of L2 grit as a negative predictor
of FLA (Khajavy and Aghaee 2022; Liu et al. 2021; Liu and Wang 2021). Liu et al. (2021) probed into
the mediating role of anxiety and grit between self-oriented perfectionism and English learning
burnout and uncovered the predictive role of grit in anxiety. Likewise, Liu and Wang (2021)
confirmed the effect of grit on anxiety in their exploration of the impact of grit on foreign language
performance. Moreover, Khajavy and Aghaee (2022) demonstrated that both PE and CI could predict
FLA. Therefore, the present study aimed to confirm the negative predictive role of L2 grit on FLA.
To sum up, there is a strong association between students’ perceived foreign language teacher sup­
port and psychological and emotional factors. Theoretical insights have illuminated the critical role of
teacher support, as an essential source in the social support network, in students’ psychological devel­
opment and emotional states (Tardy 1985). CVT also sheds light on the significance of social and cul­
tural antecedents (e.g. language teacher support) and personality antecedents (e.g. L2 grit) in students’
academic emotions (e.g. FLA; Pekrun 2006). Empirical evidence has also demonstrated that receiving
support from foreign language teachers affects L2 grit, a vital positive psychological factor, and FLA, a
negative emotional factor (Dewaele, Magdalena, and Saito 2019; Hejazi and Sadoughi 2022; Shen and
Guo 2022). Research has also provided evidence of the negative effect of L2 grit on FLA (Khajavy and
Aghaee 2022; Liu et al. 2021; Liu and Wang 2021). The impact of language teacher support on
cognitive and emotional factors has recently attracted the attention of researchers in the realm of
SLA, though the number of studies is small and further research is required to deepen our under­
standing of the intricate relation between language teacher support, L2 grit, and FLA.

Hypothesized model of the present study

Drawing on the theoretical and empirical evidence from the reviewed studies above, we developed
the hypotheses below. Figures 1 and 2 show the hypothesized structural equation models that we
tested in this study. Figure 1 displays the hypothesizedmodel of the mediating role of L2 grit

Figure 1. The hypothesised model of the mediating role of L2 grit between perceived foreign language teacher support and FLA.
Note. TeacherS = students’ perceived foreign language teacher support; FLA = foreign language anxiety.
 JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 5

Figure 2. The hypothesized model of the mediating role of dimensions of L2 grit between dimensions of perceived foreign
language teacher support and FLA. Note. AcademicS = academic support, EmotionalS = emotional support, InstrumentalS =
instrumental support, PE = perseverance of effort, CI = consistency of interest, FLA = foreign language anxiety.

between perceived foreign language teacher support and FLA. Figure 2 presents the hypothesized
model of the mediating role of dimensions of L2 grit between the dimensions of perceived foreign
language teacher support and FLA.

H1. Students’ perceived foreign language teacher support (i.e. academic, emotional, and instrumental support)
predicts their level of FLA.

H1a. Students’ perceived academic support predicts their level of FLA.

H1b. Students’ perceived emotional support predicts their level of FLA.

H1c. Students’ perceived instrumental support predicts their level of FLA.

H2. Students’ perceived foreign language teacher support (i.e. academic, emotional, and instrumental support)
predicts their levels of L2 grit (i.e. PE and CI).

H2a. Students’ perceived academic support predicts their level of PE.

H2b. Students’ perceived emotional support predicts their level of PE.

H2c. Students’ perceived instrumental support predicts their level of PE.

H2d. Students’ perceived academic support predicts their level of CI.

H2e. Students’ perceived emotional support predicts their level of CI.

H2f. Students’ perceived instrumental support predicts their level of CI.

H3. L2 grit (i.e. PE and CI) predicts students’ level of FLA.

H3a. PE predicts students’ level of FLA.

H3b. CI predicts students’ level of FLA.

6 H. LIU ET AL.

H4. L2 grit (i.e. PE and CI) mediates the relationship between perceived foreign language teacher support (i.e.
academic support, emotional support, and instrumental support) and FLA.

H4a. PE mediates the relationship between perceived academic support and FLA.

H4b. PE mediates the relationship between perceived emotional support and FLA.

H4c. PE mediates the relationship between perceived instrumental support and FLA.

H4d. CI mediates the relationship between perceived academic support and FLA.

H4e. CI mediates the relationship between perceived emotional support and FLA.

H4f. CI mediates the relationship between perceived instrumental support and FLA.

Method
Participants
This study relied on a convenience sampling method due to the convenience of access to students (Rose,
Mckinley, and Baffoe-Djan 2019). This method yielded 1,401 high school students from five provinces
in northern China as participants to explore their perceived foreign language teacher support, FLA, and
L2 grit. All participants spoke Chinese as their first language and studied English as a foreign language
(EFL). English is a compulsory subject within the curriculum. After screening for invalid responses, we
obtained a valid sample of 1,319 students, representing a response rate of 94.1%. Within the valid
sample, 710 participants (53.8%) were female and 609 (46.2%) were male; 747 (56.6%) were junior
high school students (Mage = 13.95 years) and 572 (43.4%) were senior high school students (Mage =
16.94 years). Participants’ English learning experiences ranged from four to nine years (M = 6.25 years).

Research instrument
Students’ perceived foreign language teacher support
We adopted Liu and Li’s (2023) Students’ Perceived EFL Teacher Support Scale (SPEFLTSS) to
measure perceived foreign language teacher support. SPEFLTSS contains 12 items – five items
measuring academic support (e.g. Q04: The English teacher expands our extracurricular cultural
knowledge related to the textbook content), four items measuring emotional support (e.g. Q06:
The English teacher pays careful attention to my studies), and three items measuring instrumental
support (e.g. Q10: The English teacher helps me choose suitable learning materials). Participants
could rate the items on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = completely disagree to 6 = completely
agree. The reliability of the current study was acceptable, with Cronbach’s alpha being .884 for aca­
demic support, .889 for instrumental support, .860 for emotional support, and .893 for the overall
scale. The modified structural equation modelling (SEM; i.e. removing Q07) yielded a satisfactory
model fit, with the goodness-of-fit index (GFI) being .955, root mean square error of approximation
(RMSEA) being .075, and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) being .039.

Foreign language anxiety

We measured FLA using the Short-Form Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Botes et al.
2022; Dewaele and MacIntyre 2014), an eight-item scale rated on a 6-point Likert scale ranging
from 1 = completely disagree to 6 = completely agree. This scale had good internal reliability in this
study, with Cronbach’s alpha being .908. The initial model fit indices were not acceptable. After delet­
ing items Q23, Q28, and Q29, the model fit was good: GFI = .997, RMSEA = .030, SRMR = .006.

L2 grit
We applied Teimouri, Plonsky, and Tabandeh’s (2020) L2 Grit Scale to evaluate students’ grit in
language learning. There has been wide adoption of this scale in the field of SLA and a recent
 JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 7

replication study validated it (Mikami 2023). There are nine items rated on a 6-point Likert scale,
with five assessing PE (e.g. Q13: I will not allow anything to stop me from making progress in
learning English) and four assessing CI (e.g. Q18: I am not as interested in learning English
as I used to be). The reliability of this scale in the present study was relatively high, with Cron­
bach’s alpha being .929 for PE, .866 for CI, and .792 for the overall scale. The goodness-of-fit
indices after modification (i.e. removing Q18) were also excellent: GFI = .984, RMSEA = .054,
SRMR = .037.

Data collection
In May 2022, with the help of the online questionnaire system Wenjuanxing (https://www.wjx.cn/),
we distributed the questionnaires. We informed the participants of the research purposes, with
anonymity and confidentiality maintained throughout the research, and encouraged them to com­
plete the questionnaire according to their real learning experiences and feelings.

Data analysis
We employed Mahalanobis distance to screen the outliers and SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 24.0 to ana­
lyse the data. We first conducted Harman’s single-factor test to avoid common method bias since
the study used self-report measures. We then performed descriptive and correlation statistical
analyses to present an overview of the data. Next, we tested the hypothesized SEM model
using the data gathered to examine the direct and indirect effects of perceived foreign language
teacher support on FLA via PE and CI. We corrected the p-value using the Bonferroni method
to avoid type 1 errors. Specifically, we considered a p-value below 0.001 significant, which we cal­
culated by following the formula of 0.01 divided by 6. To test the significance of the mediating
effect, we adopted the bootstrapping approach to yield a bias-corrected 95% confidence interval
by taking repeated samples (5,000 bootstrap samples; Hayes 2009). The mediating effect was
significant if the confidence interval did not straddle zero (Field 2017). To evaluate how well
the empirical data fit the hypothesized model, we used GFI, RMSEA, and SRMR as goodness-
of-fit indices. The fit model satisfied the following criteria: GFI ≥ .90, RMSEA ≤ .08, and SRMR ≤
.10 (Hair et al. 2019).

Results
Profiles of students’ perceived foreign language teacher support, L2 grit, and foreign
language anxiety
The results of Harman’s single-factor test indicate that there were five factors with eigenvalues
greater than 1, explaining 73.25% of the variance, and the first factor explained 34.12% of the var­
iance, far below the benchmark of 50%. Thus, this study had no significant common method bias
(Kock, Berbekova, and Assaf 2021). We subsequently conducted descriptive and correlation ana­
lyses for each variable (see Table 1) to present the profiles of learners’ perceived foreign language
teacher support, L2 grit, and FLA.

Results of the structural equation modelling

Simple model
Results of the SEM indicate that overall language teacher support had a direct positive effect
on FLA. Additionally, the 95% CI of the indirect impact of L2 grit was [−.565, −.425](see
Table 2), indicating that the overall language teacher support could negatively and significantly
8 H. LIU ET AL.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics and correlations among latent variables.

M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 AS 5.66 0.62 –
2 ES 5.29 0.96 .631** –
3 IS 4.71 1.42 .502** .507** –
4 GS 5.30 0.78 .826** .819** .852** –
5 LG 4.52 1.03 .412** .584** .348** .519** –
6 PE 4.77 1.24 .473** .644** .499** .637** .788** –
7 CI 4.10 1.69 .088** .158** −.047 .062* .656** .053 –
8 FLA 3.71 1.60 −.074** −.150** .029 −.063* −.453** −.106** −.605**
Note. N = 1,319, **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05, AS = academic support, ES = emotional support, IS = instrumental support, GS = Global
students’ perceived foreign language teacher support, LG = L2 grit, PE = perseverance of effort, CI = consistency of interest,
FLA = foreign language anxiety.

influence FLA through the partial mediating role of L2 grit. In other words, students’ perceived
teacher support can directly aggravate students’ FLA but can reduce the level of FLA by
enhancing students’ L2 grit. Since the indirect effect level is higher than the direct effect level, stu­
dents’ perceived foreign language teacher support can reduce the level of FLA on the whole
(Figure 3).

Complex model
To delve deeper into the predictive roles of specific dimensions of teacher support on FLA, we
tested the complex SEM model involving academic, emotional, and instrumental support as separ­
ate independent variables. To avoid potential multicollinearity issues between these three dimen­
sions, we calculated the variation inflation factor for academic, emotional, and instrumental
support, and all were below the benchmark of 3, indicating no significant multicollinearity pro­
blems (Hair et al. 2019).
An SEM approach assessed the direct and indirect paths from perceived foreign language
teacher support to FLA via L2 grit. The SEM model, after modifications, generated a satisfactory
model fit: GFI = .927, RMSEA = .057, SRMR = .048. Figure 4 presents the SEM model with a stan­
dardized coefficient. Regarding the direct effects, CI, and perceived academic, emotional, and
instrumental support, but not PE, positively predicted FLA. Thus, H1 and H3a were rejected
whereas H3b was accepted. Emotional and instrumental support, but not academic support, posi­
tively predicted PE. Emotional support positively predicted CI, and instrumental support negatively
predicted CI, but academic support did not predict CI. Therefore, H2b, H2c, H2e, and H2f were
confirmed while H2a and H2d were disregarded. In addition, rejecting H3 means disregarding
H4a, H4b, and H4c since PE could not predict FLA and had no mediating effect. Moreover, H4d
was also rejected since perceived academic support neither predicted CI nor FLA, so could not
indirectly affect FLA via CI.
We also calculated the indirect effects of the three types of perceived foreign language teacher
support on FLA via CI. The results of the mediation analysis show that CI mediated the relationship
between perceived emotional support and FLA (β = .18, p < .001) and between perceived instru­
mental support and FLA (β = .15, p < .001), accepting H4e and H4f (Table 3).

Table 2. Indirect, direct and total effect of perceived foreign language teacher support on FLA.
Percentile 95% CI
Parameter Estimate Lower Upper P
Indirect effect −.495 −.565 −.425 .000
Direct effect .160 .060 .256 .002
Total effect −.335 −.425 −.238 .000
 JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 9

Figure 3. The final model of the mediating role of L2 grit between perceived foreign language teacher support and FLA. Note.
TeacherS = students’ perceived foreign language teacher support; FLA = foreign language anxiety.

Discussion
Influence of perceived foreign language teacher support on foreign language anxiety
The SEM results indicate that perceived overall foreign language teacher support had a direct posi­
tive predictive effect on FLA, whereas the three dimensions of perceived foreign language teacher
support – academic support, emotional support, and instrumental support – could not significantly
affect FLA alone, echoing previous research findings (e.g. Dewaele and MacIntyre 2019; Jin and
Dewaele 2018). This may be related to China’s educational education system. The teaching style
of high school English teachers has shifted from the traditional "cramming" method to a teaching
style that focuses on learners and learning under the guidance of the new curriculum reform. How­
ever, given the ever-present significance of high school entrance and college admission examin­
ations, teachers may continue to place a greater emphasis on knowledge acquisition during the

Figure 4. The final model of the mediating role of dimensions of L2 grit between dimensions of perceived foreign language
teacher support and FLA.
Note. AcademicS = academic support, EmotionalS = emotional support, InstrumentalS = instrumental support, PE = perseverance of effort, CI =
consistency of interest, FLA = foreign language anxiety.
10 H. LIU ET AL.

Table 3. Different paths of variables in the structural equation modelling.

Pathway Estimate Standardized estimate S.E. C.R. P R2
AS→PE −.095 −.057 .064 −1.488 .137 .54
ES→PE .858 .632 .059 14.656 ***
IS→PE .180 .216 .026 7.001 ***
AS→CI .104 .039 .132 .785 .432 .07
ES→CI .624 .287 .111 5.623 ***
IS→CI −.311 −.234 .053 −5.819 ***
AS→FLA .098 .048 .085 1.157 .247 .44
ES→FLA −.048 −.029 .089 −.543 .587
IS→FLA .035 .034 .035 .995 .320
PE→FLA −.137 −.110 .049 −2.808 0.01
CI→FLA −.498 −.641 .025 −20.258 ***
Note. **p < 0. 01, ***p < 0. 001, AS = academic support, ES = emotional support, IS = instrumental support, PE = perseverance of
effort, CI = consistency of interest, FLA = foreign language anxiety.

teaching process while paying insufficient attention to the students’ emotional states. This high­
lights the importance of the all-encompassing effect of multiple types of teacher support in the
social support network (Tardy 1985). A single aspect of teacher support can only combine with
other aspects to affect FLA jointly. Prior research led to similar conclusions; for instance, Jin and
Dewaele (2018) found no significant relationship between language teacher emotional support
and FLA.
Additionally, FLA is distinctive in that learner-internal variables, rather than environmental
factors, have been more likely to predict it (Dewaele and Dewaele 2020; Dewaele and MacIntyre
2019). Dewaele and MacIntyre (2019) found that personality traits, rather than attitudes towards
the teacher, predominantly predicted FLA. Jin and Dewaele (2018) also remarked that personality
factors had a greater influence on FLA than classroom variables. Teacher characteristics were only
marginally predictive of FLA, and teacher-centred independent variables had little bearing on
FLA for older pupils (Dewaele, Magdalena, and Saito 2019; Dewaele and MaclIntyre 2019; Jin
and Dewaele 2018). This may be because FLA is slightly more trait-like (Dewaele and Dewaele
2020; Dewaele and MacIntyre 2019). Consequently, FLA experiences have had more frequent
associations with self-related factors than with external factors, like support from language
teachers.

Influence of perceived foreign language teacher support on L2 grit

Perceived overall foreign language teacher support had a direct positive predictive effect on L2
grit, as previous studies have shown (Hejazi and Sadoughi 2022; Shen and Guo 2022). Perceived
emotional and instrumental support from teachers in particular had a significant positive impact
on L2 grit, whereas perceived academic assistance had little effect. The results of this study
address the gap in existing research on the effect of specific dimensions of teacher support on
L2 grit since the majority of researchers have investigated the impact of global teacher support
(Hejazi and Sadoughi 2022; Shen and Guo 2022). For example, Hejazi and Sadoughi (2022)
found that perceived teacher support (i.e. emotional, appraisal, and instrumental support)
could directly predict L2 grit. This is perhaps due to the nature of L2 grit. As a positive personality
factor, L2 grit encodes students’ persistence and enthusiasm in realizing their long-term language
learning goals (Teimouri, Plonsky, and Tabandeh 2020). The essence of persistence and enthu­
siasm is strongly associated with emotional support and instrumental support. Foreign language
learning is a time-consuming and demanding process that necessitates students’ active engage­
ment in classroom activities and effort and accumulation in their spare time. The emotional
and instrumental support that foreign language teachers provide is especially crucial in this
process.
 JOURNAL OF MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 11

Influence of L2 grit on foreign language anxiety

L2 grit could predict FLA directly and negatively, consistent with previous findings (Khajavy and
Aghaee 2022; Liu et al. 2021; Liu and Wang 2021). Thus, we confirmed that L2 grit can significantly
and negatively predict FLA (Liu et al. 2021; Liu and Wang 2021). The results show that CI exerted a
negative effect on FLA, whereas PE did not. The different effects of PE and CI echo the findings of
previous studies (Xiao et al. 2021; Khajavy and Aghaee 2022). Xiao et al. (2021) observed that CI
predicted anxiety, while PE was not significantly associated with anxiety. Khajavy and Aghaee
(2022) revealed that the predictive role of CI was stronger than that of PE. According to Gass, Selin­
ker, and Plonsky (2020), learning a foreign language is a lengthy process in which learners encoun­
ter hurdles and problems, such as nervousness, anxiety, or stress. Individuals who are not gritty
enough will be unable to overcome those challenges, which will eventually affect their learning
achievements. Furthermore, the results of this study provide empirical support for CVT (Pekrun
2006), which suggests that individual personality traits (e.g. L2 grit) can influence achievement
emotions (e.g. FLA).

The mediating effect of L2 grit between perceived foreign language teacher support and
foreign language anxiety
The results indicate that L2 grit completely mediated the link between perceived emotional and
instrumental support and FLA, confirming earlier studies that teacher-centred independent vari­
ables cannot directly affect learners’ FLA (Jin and Dewaele 2018). However, students’ perceived
foreign language teacher support can have a certain impact on their personality – namely, L2
grit (Hejazi and Sadoughi 2022; Shen and Guo 2022). A ripple effect of this was the predictive
effect of L2 grit on FLA (Khajavy and Aghaee 2022; Liu et al. 2021; Liu and Wang 2021). Therefore,
students’ perceived foreign language teacher support can indirectly affect FLA via L2 grit. Language
acquisition is a long process during which students may experience worry, anxiety, or tension, hin­
dering their academic process and sound development. Without timely and practical support from
teachers, or if students are not gritty enough, they cannot overcome such difficulties, which will
eventually impair their overall development (Gass, Selinker, and Plonsky 2020; Liu and Li 2023).

Conclusion and implications

The current study verified the hypothesized structural models of perceived foreign language teacher
support, L2 grit, and FLA for EFL students. The results show that while students’ perceived aca­
demic, emotional, and instrumental support could not directly affect FLA, perceived emotional
and instrumental support could indirectly affect FLA via L2 grit. To the best of our knowledge,
this study is the first to explore the mediating roles of dimensions of L2 grit in the relationship
between dimensions of students’ perceived foreign language teacher support and FLA in the EFL
learning context. Previous studies found that social support had an essential impact on foreign
language education outcomes and psychological factors (Bai, Chao, and Wang 2019; Luan et al.
2020). This study further demystified how teacher support, as an important source in the social sup­
port network, affects students’ learning psychology, emphasizing the direct effect of the multidi­
mensional synergistic effect of teacher support on students’ learning psychology and portraying
the impact of different types of teacher support on foreign language learning emotions.
There are several implications of the findings of this study that language teachers and researchers
should be aware of. It is important to note that all aspects of teacher support work together syner­
gistically since the effects of the overall and specific aspects of language teacher support on FLA are
different. Learners need comprehensive teacher support, and there is an expectation that teachers
will promote students’ understanding and mastery of knowledge and be aware of students’
emotional states and grit personalities. In addition, although the cramming teaching mode has
12 H. LIU ET AL.

offered some benefits and gained popularity in China, the negation of the predictive role of per­
ceived academic support and the confirmation of the predictive role of perceived emotional support
and instrumental support on FLA enlighten teachers to improve the traditional teaching mindset
and alter the indoctrination teaching mode. To effectively optimize educational outcomes, there
is a need for greater emphasis on providing students with emotional care and extracurricular assist­
ance. Finally, the full mediation effect of L2 grit between the three dimensions of teacher support
and FLA suggests that teachers should pay attention to cultivating students’ personalities (e.g. L2
grit) to promote students’ positive academic experience.
The current study had the following limitations, which also suggest directions for future
research. Future studies can use longitudinal research methods to track and capture the dynamic
changes in students’ perceived foreign language teacher support, L2 grit, and FLA to provide a
more comprehensive profile. Moreover, as this study used a quantitative research design, future
studies can employ qualitative data analysis or a mixed-methods approach to validate the findings
of this study.

Note
1. Tardy’s social support model comprises five layers: direction, disposition, description/evaluation, content, and
network. Direction describes whether the individual is a giver or receiver; disposition addresses whether social
support is available or has been enacted; description/evaluation refers to whether an individual evaluates or
describes social support; the content of support concerns the type of social support; and network indicates
the source of social support.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding
This work was supported by the Project of Constructing The RightOempower Approach-based Teaching Mode of
“Research Methodology in English Education” in Cultivating Creative Talents in the Pre-service Teacher Pro­
gramme, Soochow University: [Grant Number 21104101].

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