Growth mindset intervention and academic engagement: the mediating role of l2 motivational self system among non-English majors

Description

Lifang Ye published a 2026 quasi-experimental study, as sole author, of a growth mindset program for Chinese university students required to study English. Students outside English majors often lose motivation in these compulsory courses. One hundred twenty first-year students in whole classes were assigned to the program or to regular teaching, sixty per group.

The twelve-week program wove mindset lessons into normal English classes. Measures tracked students' second-language motivational self system, meaning the English speaker they hope to become, fear becoming, and feel expected to become, plus their academic engagement. The analysis tests whether the motivational self explains any engagement gains from the mindset work. The framing draws on possible selves and self-discrepancy theory to unify two research traditions.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13479563