The Predictive Effects of Gender and Academic Discipline on Foreign Language Enjoyment of Chinese High School Students

Jian Huang; Guiying Jiang

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.802152

The Predictive Effects of Gender and Academic Discipline on Foreign Language Enjoyment of Chinese High School Students

Front Psychol. 2022 Jan 4:12:802152. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.802152. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Jian Huang¹, Guiying Jiang²

Affiliations

¹ School of Foreign Studies, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China.
² College of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.

Abstract

Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) plays a facilitative role in FL learning and its contributing factors have been the object of scholarly attention in the Positive Psychology approach to second language acquisition (SLA). The present study examined the predictive effects of gender and academic discipline on overall FLE and each of its subcomponents in a specific Chinese EFL context. Statistical analyses based on a sample of 1,718 high school students showed that: (1) female students scored significantly higher in overall FLE, FLE-Private, and FLE-Atmosphere than their male counterparts, but no significant difference was found in their FLE-Teacher; (2) students of Humanities and Social Sciences scored significantly higher in overall FLE, FLE-Teacher and FLE-Atmosphere than students of Natural Science, though no significant difference was identified for FLE-Private. Reasons for the statistical variations and their implications were also discussed.

Keywords: EFL learning; academic discipline; foreign language enjoyment; gender; positive psychology.