How Language Attitudes Shape French Language Achievement: The Mediating Role of Student Engagement

Drawing on positive psychology, this study investigated the relationships among language attitudes, student engagement (including its cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social dimensions), and academic achievement in French. A total of 335 Chinese junior high school learners of French as a foreign language (FFL) completed a French proficiency test and filled out validated scales measuring language attitudes and student engagement. Correlation analyses revealed significant positive associations across all three constructs, with effect sizes ranging from small to large. Structural equation modeling (SEM) further demonstrated that: (1) language attitudes were significantly and positively associated with all four dimensions of student engagement; (2) of the four dimensions, only behavioral engagement showed a significant positive path to French achievement and emerged as the only significant positive mediator of the attitudes–achievement relation, with the direct path from language attitudes to achievement being non-significant; (3) the indirect effects through cognitive, emotional, and social engagement were non-significant. These findings contribute to the further examination and extension of Control-Value Theory (CVT) and offer practical implications for FFL pedagogy.