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This study examined the effects of praise for intelligence and praise for effort on Iranian EFL learners' language mindsets, perceived communication competence, speaking anxiety, and willingness to communicate (WTC). The students in three English classes (N = 63, all junior high school students) in a private language institute filled in self-report scales on language mindsets, perceived communication competence, speaking anxiety, and WTC, and then were assigned to praise for effort, praise for intelligence, and control conditions for 14 classroom communication sessions. They answered the same scales in the last session of the experiment. The results of quantitative analysis indicated that praise for effort enhanced learners' growth mindsets, communicative competence, and WTC, and decreased their speaking anxiety. In contrast, praise for intelligence and no praise decreased students' growth mindsets. Praise for intelligence further decreased students' WTC and increased their speaking anxiety. Follow-up qualitative data gathered by interviews with 12 students further suggested that praise for effort facilitated learners' WTC by increasing their growth mindsets and lowering their speaking anxiety. Finally, we discussed practical implications for how language teachers enhance students' success in classroom communication.

It is possible that individuals do not endorse a general mindset or theory of intelligence and that their mindset is specific to particular domains. There is currently a dearth of evidence to support this possibility. It is also not known how these two types of mindset influence learning behaviors and outcomes. This study investigates the roles of generic mindsets (i.e. beliefs about general ability) and domain-specific mindsets (i.e. beliefs about domain-specific abilities) in students' learning of graphic design principles. Pre-service teachers (n = 107) played an online assessment game in which they designed three posters. For each poster, they had three chances to seek critical (i.e. constructive) feedback and one chance to revise their posters. Students' poster performance was measured by the game, whereas their learning of graphic design principles was measured by a post-test. Results show that critical feedback-seeking moderated the relation between generic and domain-specific growth mindsets. Critical feedback-seeking improved learning outcomes only when students endorsed a weak fixed generic mindset. Theoretical implications suggest that generic and domain-specific mindsets are distinct psychological constructs, and that generic mindsets seem to be more important than domain-specific mindsets in predicting learning of graphic design principles.

Language learners' mindsets--their beliefs about whether language is a fixed aptitude that is immutable or a malleable capacity that can be developed--are associated with achievement goals, language-use anxiety, reappraisals of challenges, and persistence. This study integrates these mindset-related constructs to identify mindset-system profiles among foreign language learners. A latent profile analysis of 234 university students in foreign language courses revealed three distinct profiles. The fixed (21.8%) and growth (20.5%) profiles showed distinct and contrasting patterns of goals, reappraisals, anxiety, and persistence. However, most learners (57.7%) endorsed a mixed profile. Although mindsets alone did not predict grades, students in the growth profile were consistently most engaged and achieved the highest grades, suggesting that mindsets function as a system, in concert with related factors. This person-centered approach enhances our understanding of the complexity and functions of the mindset system, as well as the motivation of learners with mixed mindsets.

Evidence generally supports a positive association between growth mindset and academic outcomes, even if the experimental evidence for growth mindset interventions is somewhat more tenuous. From an applied perspective, the concept of growth mindsets has grown in popularity with a proliferation of materials readily available to teachers and school administrators. The purpose of this multi-method study was to explore elementary students' (ages 6-12) understanding of growth mindset messaging created by their school and teachers, and its association with students' emotions. The results showed that students were positively impacted by the growth mindset messaging, both in school and when facing challenges outside of school. Their emotions were largely positive, with the exception of frustration, which participants associated equally with a growth and a fixed mindset. Results are discussed in relation to mindset theory broadly as well as in regards to school-and teacher-initiated mindset messages.

Growth language mindsets (i.e., beliefs that language ability can be improved) are found to sustain learners' motivation and resilience in challenging situations. Considering that migrants who are speakers of languages other than the dominant ones often face challenging daily communications, we examined important but understudied questions of 'how' and 'when' growth language mindsets predict migrants' language experiences, including language anxiety, language use, and perceived English proficiency. In 3 studies, we surveyed 2,163 foreign-born university students in Canada who indicated English as their second language. We found that growth language mindsets positively predicted self-assessed English proficiency, even 4 months after the initial assessment of mindsets. Answering 'how,' we found that migrants with stronger growth mindsets were less anxious, were more likely to use English, and reported higher proficiency, even after accounting for baseline proficiency. Concerning 'when,' we found that mindsets have significant and moderate association with language use, anxiety, and perceived proficiency for only more recently arrived students (who lived in the receiving country for less than 7 years). Although newly arrived migrants are more anxious about using English and less likely to use English, they are resilient when they envision growth in their new language. Growth mindsets may help English as a second language (ESL) students thrive in intercultural communication and succeed in language development.

Some people ascribe successful language learning to an innate aptitude that cannot be further developed, at least after a certain young age (i.e., an entity mindset), while other people believe that language learning ability can be improved (i.e., an incremental mindset). The purpose of this research is to (a) introduce the Language Mindsets Inventory (LMI), and (b) test the mindsets-goals-responses model, which maintains that learners' mindsets predict the goals that they set for language learning, and that these goals in turn affect how they respond to difficult academic and communication episodes. Correlational and factor analyses provided evidence of the LMI's valid and reliable use in research with university-level language students. Path analyses showed that regardless of their competence level, greater endorsement of an incremental mindset was associated with the goal of learning more about the language, and this learning goal in turn predicted greater mastery and less helpless responses in failure situations. Greater endorsement of an entity mindset predicted the goal of demonstrating competence (i.e., performance approach goals) when students believed that they had stronger language skills. The use of the LMI in future research and the importance of supporting incremental mindsets for language education are discussed.

Although recent research suggests that language mindsets (i.e., fundamentalbeliefs aboutthe fixedness and malleability of language learning ability) are important for L2 learners' motivation and learning behaviors, much research has focused on quantitative approaches and static individual differences, with little emphasis on its student-centered and ecologically-relevant phenomena. The aim of this study was to take an ecological perspective to understand the development of mindsets about L2 writingand their relevance tomotivation. Based on an analysis of in-depth interviewswith six (two males, four females) adult EFL learners in Iran, we identified that several eco-systemic factors underlie the emergence, complexity, and dynamics of the learners' mindsets regarding the skill of L2 writing. Students emphasize that teachers (microsystem) play a central role in constructingtheir mindsets about L2 writing. In addition, their previous learning experiences, including teachers, parents, and high-stake exams (mesosystem), the institutional policies that emphasize English oral skills and neglect writing skills (exosystem), and the mainstream culture in favor of a natural talent for writing skills (macrosystem) also contributed to the emergence of learners' mindsets. Moreover, the results highlighted the domain-specific and dynamic nature of language mindsets, such that learners considered their mindsets about L2 writing skills differently from other skills (e.g., speaking) and that their mindsets changed in different stages of the learning processes. We show that the ecological approach can unpack the complex-dynamic and multifaceted nature of mindsets, providing theoretical and pedagogical implications for fostering growth mindsets and improving learners' L2 writing motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the effectiveness and experiences of computer-based examinations is a widely investigated area of research, the question of whether and how computer-based assessment limits or heightens the experience of negative test emotions remains largely unexamined. Drawing from the control-value theory of achievement emotions, we investigated undergraduate students' emotions during an authentic, course-based assessment in a computer-based testing environment, as well as predictors and outcomes associated with their emotions. We found that students (N = 74) in a computer-based testing environment reported lower levels of negative emotions than their typical negative test emotions. Females and males performed equally in the examination, yet females reported higher retrospective negative emotions. Consistently, females reported higher levels of typical test-taking anxiety in prior examinations, but they reported lower anxiety in a computer-based environment. Finally, although typical and retrospective emotions were correlated, only retrospective emotions were associated with examination performance. We discuss the importance of testing environments and time-frames in understanding how to support students' emotions in testing with particular emphasis on implications for online assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supporting students' growth mindsets (i.e., beliefs that ability can be improved) and basic psychological needs (i.e., needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness) is an important way to sustain their motivation and resilience after challenging situations. We argue that others' feedback may support or undermine mindsets and need satisfaction simultaneously through students' meta-lay theories—that is, students' perceptions of whether others (in this case, their teacher) believe that ability can be improved or not. We conducted a randomized controlled experiment in which 180 university students who spoke English as their second language failed a difficult English test and received either feedback from a teacher who consoled their lack of ability, feedback that focused on improving ability, or no feedback. We found that compared to students receiving no feedback, students receiving ability-consoling feedback perceived that the teacher believed less in their potential and felt less competent, and students receiving improvement-oriented feedback perceived that the teacher believed more in their potential. Consequently, meta-lay theory ("the teacher believes I can change my ability") predicted students' endorsement of growth mindsets ("I believe I can improve") and need satisfaction (sense of competence, relatedness, and autonomy). In turn, mindsets and need satisfaction jointly predicted language confidence and beliefs about mistakes. Only need satisfaction, however, predicted task avoidance and duration of task engagement. Meta-lay theories underlie the processes through which feedback supports or undermines students' resilience after failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mindset is believed to influence students' learning outcomes, but there is a paucity of research examining its relationship to students' learning choices (e.g., critical feedback-seeking and revision choices) as a pathway to improving learning and performance. This study examines the relationships between mindset, critical feedback-seeking, and learning. Undergraduate students (n = 155) at a University in Western Canada completed a mindset pre-test, played an online assessment game in which they designed three posters, and completed a post-test measuring their learning of graphic design principles. For each poster, the game tracked students' choices to seek confirmatory or critical feedback and to revise their posters, as well as their poster performance. Findings show that the more the students seek critical feedback, the more they revise their posters and the better they perform across the game. Theoretical implications resulting from mediation analyses indicate that revision fully explains the link between critical feedback-seeking and performance. Moreover, moderation analyses of mindset revealed differential results on the relationship between critical feedback-seeking and learning, depending on the conceptualization of the mindset construct. Implications of these results with regards to the conceptualization of mindset are discussed. • This study examines the relationships between mindset, critical feedback-seeking, and learning. • Undergraduates (n = 155) completed a mindset pre-test, played a game, and completed a post-test measuring their learning. • Critical feedback-seeking was positively associated with learning only for students who endorsed a strong growth mindset. • Theoretical implications indicate that revision fully explains the link between critical feedback-seeking and performance. • Practical implications include interventions that focus on revising and cultivating a growth mindset to improve learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]