Achievement goals, emotions and willingness to communicate in EFL learning: Combining variable- and person-centered approaches

Willingness to communicate (WTC) plays a key role in foreign language learning. However, little research has been devoted to the role of achievement goals and achievement emotions in understanding WTC. The present study aimed to examine the relationship between achievement goals (i.e. mastery goals, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals) and WTC via achievement emotions, specifically enjoyment and anxiety. Chinese secondary school students (N = 408) participated in this study. Both variable- and person-centered approaches were used to analyse the data. Study 1 used a variable-centered approach to investigate the relationship between achievement goals and WTC. Results indicated that mastery and performance-approach goals were positively associated with WTC via higher levels of enjoyment. However, anxiety was not significantly associated with WTC. Study 2 adopted a person-centered approach to identify students' achievement goal profiles and how these profiles were associated with achievement emotions and WTC. Results indicated that students could be categorized into four groups: mastery-oriented, high-all, average-all, and low-all. Students from these different groups showed varying levels of achievement emotions and WTC. Specifically, the mastery-oriented group had the most adaptive outcomes, while the low-all group had the least desirable outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.