Predicting responses in failure situation based on language mindsets among EFL learners: Mediating role of goal orientation and self-regulated learning

Mindsets as a cognitive-motivational system determine how people think about their personal characteristics, effort, success and failure in various situations. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between language mindsets and failure response among EFL learners, considering the mediating role of goal orientation and self-regulated learning. The Method of this research was descriptive based on path analysis. The statistical population consisted of all learners of English language teaching institutes in Baharestan in 1398. Participants included 205 EFL learners (122 females and 83 males) who were selected by multistage cluster random sampling method. To collect data, four questionnaires were used: Language Mindset Inventory (Loe & Noels, 2016), Motivational Strategy of Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990), Achievement Goal Orientation Instrument (Elliott & Church, 1997), and Response to failure situation scale (Loe & Noels, 2016). The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results showed that growth language mindset had a positive indirect effect on mastery response mediated by learning goals and self-regulated learning strategies, and negative indirect effect on helpless-anxious response mediated by self-regulated learning strategies. Also, fixed language mindset had a positive indirect effect on helpless-anxious response mediated by performance-avoidance goal and test anxiety. However, the indirect effect of language mindsets on failure response via performance-approach goal was not confirmed. In Conclusion, Language educators with greater awareness of the concept of mindsets can promote learner’s beliefs about the nature and process of knowledge acquisition, and emphasize the importance of goals achievement and self-regulation in learning.