Foreign Language Writing Emotions and Linguistic Complexity in Argumentative Writing: A Latent Profile Analysis

ABSTRACT Recent research into emotion‐achievement links has increasingly recognized the necessity of analyzing these relationships at a skill‐specific level. However, this body of work remains dominated by variable‐centered approaches, which overlook how emotions interact with one another to shape these skills. Focusing on the second language (L2) writing domain, this study adopted a person‐centered approach to explore the relationship between foreign language writing emotions (i.e., enjoyment and boredom, with the former comprising private and social dimensions) and linguistic complexity in argumentative writing produced by Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Using latent profile analysis, we identified three distinct emotional profiles: the Highly Positive Group (HPG), the Moderately Positive Group (MPG), and the Slightly Negative Group (SNG). Analysis of these profiles revealed that the inverse relationship between internally‐driven private enjoyment and boredom was stronger than that between interpersonally‐constructed social enjoyment and boredom. The HPG and the MPG, characterized by net positive emotions, significantly outperformed the SNG in several complexity measures that showed greater degrees of variation. The study contributes to L2 writing research by applying person‐centered emotional profiling and highlighting two key pedagogical insights: the value of fostering internally driven enjoyment and the need to embrace emotional complexity in writing instruction.