The predictive effects of individual difference factors on L2 writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency

Drawing on the control-value theory and the individual-environmental model of writing, this study investigated the predictive effects of various individual difference factors (i.e., L2 writing grit, enjoyment, anxiety, motivation, and working memory) on L2 writing syntactic complexity, accuracy, lexical complexity, and fluency (CALF) performance. Questionnaires were distributed to 390 high school students to measure their L2 writing grit, enjoyment, anxiety, and motivation. A reading span test and an operation span test were conducted to assess the students' working memory. All participants completed a writing task within 30 minutes. The structural equation modeling results revealed that L2 writing anxiety directly predicted syntactic complexity and accuracy, and L2 writing motivation directly predicted lexical complexity and fluency. Although L2 writing grit did not directly predict CALF performance, it predicted syntactic complexity and accuracy through anxiety. In addition, L2 writing grit predicted lexical complexity and fluency through the serial mediating roles of emotions and motivation. Specifically, the mediating effect of enjoyment and motivation was larger than that of anxiety and motivation in the relationship between grit and lexical complexity as well as between grit and fluency.