A latent profile analysis of Chinese EFL learners’ enjoyment and anxiety in reading and writing: associations with imaginative capacity and story continuation writing performance

Abstract

Abstract Research on second language (L2) enjoyment and anxiety has mainly focused on independent reading and writing tasks. An integrated reading-writing task involves students in both reading and writing processes, raising the possibility of different combinations of, and unique interaction between, enjoyment and anxiety across reading and writing in such a task. This study aimed to identify integrated reading-writing task based enjoyment and anxiety profiles using a person-centered latent profile analysis (LPA) and to explore their relationships with imagination and performance. Six hundred and seventy-nine 12th-grade Chinese students completed an integrated reading-writing task, namely a story continuation writing task (SCWT), and a questionnaire measuring their L2 reading enjoyment and anxiety, writing enjoyment and anxiety, and imaginative capacity. The LPA identified four different profiles: (1) the moderate-enjoyment/moderate-anxiety group, (2) the moderate-enjoyment/low-anxiety group, (3) the high-enjoyment/moderate-anxiety group, and (4) the low-enjoyment/high-anxiety group. Further, a student’s profile membership was strongly predicted by imaginative capacity. Those in the moderate-enjoyment/low-anxiety group scored highest in story continuation writing performance. Pedagogical implications tailored to integrated reading-writing task instruction are discussed.