EFL Students’ Resilience and Speaking Performance across Learning Frequencies

Despite increasing attention to the role of frequency in second and foreign language learning, prior studies have predominantly focused on its relationship with individual learner differences such as motivation, learning styles-strategies, and cultural awareness. However, there remains a notable gap in exploring how varying learning frequencies influence psychological factors, particularly learning resilience, and also the previous research has examined the effects of frequency on cognitive outcomes such as vocabulary and grammar learning or the correlations of listening frequency and speaking skills, few have addressed how distinct levels of learning frequency directly impact both learning resilience and speaking performance. Grounded in self-efficacy and resilience theory, the study aimed at investigating the extent to which differences in learning frequency contribute to variations in EFL students’ learning resilience and speaking performance. An explanatory sequential mixed-method design was employed, integrating a frequency classification questionnaire for learning frequency grouping, a learning resilience scale questionnaire, and an English-speaking performance test for 189 respondents, supplemented by semi-structured interviews for qualitative validation conducted with 36 respondents. All instruments were tested for validity and reliability. Findings indicate that high-frequency learners exhibit superior self-regulation and communicative competence (p=.000 >.05; ηp² = .877), suggests that 87.7% of the variance in resilience and performance was explained by learning frequency, representing an extremely large effect. High-frequency learners exhibited structured routines, adaptive strategies, and greater emotional and cognitive readiness, supporting stronger resilience and speaking performance. In contrast, low-frequency learners showed inconsistent habits, reactive behaviors, and heightened anxiety. Medium-frequency learners demonstrated moderate engagement, with fluctuating outcomes depending on study consistency.