The Role of Foreign Language Enjoyment and Demotivation in the Relationship between Belongingness and Academic Performance

Given the paucity of longitudinal studies and particularly, the lack of attention to the concurrent interplay of positive and negative psychology in ELT, the present research aims at probing into possible causal relationships among belongingness, foreign language enjoyment, L2 learning demotivation and academic language performance. Following a convenience sampling method, the study sample consisted of 557 incoming university freshmen from non-English majors. A longitudinal survey was employed and the data were collected by means of the related measuring instruments at three time points during an academic semester. The results based on the statistical technique of latent growth curve model showed that there was a statistically significant decrease in participants’ foreign language enjoyment and also a statistically significant increase in their L2 learning demotivation over the course of the first semester. It was also found that belongingness had a positive correlation with foreign language enjoyment and a negative correlation with L2 learning demotivation. The results also revealed that the effect of belongingness on participants’ academic language performance was mediated by both foreign language enjoyment and L2 learning demotivation. However, the direct effect of belongingness on academic language performance was statistically non-significant. The findings have important pedagogical implications that are discussed.