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How Language Attitudes Shape French Language Achievement: The Mediating Role of Student Engagement
Jiarui Gong1, Xinli Chen2, Yinuo Li2
1School of Humanities, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Behavioral Sciences (Basel, Switzerland)
|July 28, 2026
Summary
Positive attitudes toward French significantly boost student engagement, particularly behavioral engagement, which in turn enhances academic achievement for French as a foreign language (FFL) learners. Other engagement dimensions did not directly impact achievement.
Area of Science:
- Educational Psychology
- Second Language Acquisition
- Positive Psychology
Background:
- Student engagement is crucial for academic success.
- Language attitudes influence motivation and learning outcomes.
- Control-Value Theory (CVT) provides a framework for understanding motivation in academic contexts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationships between language attitudes, multifaceted student engagement, and French academic achievement.
- To examine the mediating role of different dimensions of student engagement in the link between language attitudes and achievement.
- To test the applicability of Control-Value Theory (CVT) in the context of French as a foreign language (FFL) learning.
Main Methods:
- A quantitative study involving 335 Chinese junior high school FFL learners.
- Administered French proficiency tests and validated scales for language attitudes and student engagement (cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social).
- Employed correlation analyses and structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the data.
Main Results:
- Significant positive associations were found between language attitudes, all dimensions of student engagement, and French achievement.
- Language attitudes positively predicted all four dimensions of student engagement.
- Only behavioral engagement significantly predicted French achievement and mediated the relationship between language attitudes and achievement.
Conclusions:
- Behavioral engagement is a key factor linking language attitudes to academic success in FFL.
- Cognitive, emotional, and social engagement dimensions do not directly mediate the attitudes-achievement relationship.
- Findings support and extend Control-Value Theory (CVT) and offer pedagogical insights for FFL instruction.
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