More Languages, Different Enjoyment? Foreign Language Enjoyment in a Multilingual Medical Context

This study explores Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) among medical students learning languages with different contextual roles within the same university and taught by the same teacher under comparable instructional conditions. A total of 213 students participated, including Hungarian students learning English for medical purposes (n = 130) and international students learning Hungarian (n = 83). The Short Form of the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (S-FLES) was used. The ordinal confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed an overall adequate fit for the original three-factor S-FLES model in the full sample, providing support for this structure in the present study. A complete ceiling effect for Item 2 limited the psychometric assessment in the international cohort. No significant differences were found between the two groups in teacher appreciation or personal enjoyment. In contrast, Hungarian students reported higher social enjoyment, particularly in relation to group cohesion and shared classroom experiences. No statistically significant associations between the self-reported number of languages spoken and the S-FLES items remained after correction for multiple testing, either in the full sample or when the two cohorts were analysed separately. Overall, the findings show that social enjoyment differed between the two cohorts, but the cross-sectional design does not identify the factors responsible for this difference. The study contributes to research on positive emotions in multilingual higher education by highlighting the context-dependent nature of FLE.