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Mindfulness and the Mediating Role of Psychological Capital in Predicting the Foreign Language Anxiety

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Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between mindfulness and foreign language anxiety among a sample of 504 University students who were learning English as a foreign language. In addition, the mediating role of psychological capital was examined. Three self-reported questionnaires were administered to the participants and Pearson correlation, path analysis, and structural equation modeling was utilized to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that all five components of mindfulness except observation have a direct and significant effect on foreign language anxiety. However, it should be noted that the two components of description and non-reactivity to inner experiences had a positive while the two components of aware action and non-judgment of inner actions had a negative effect on students’ foreign language classroom anxiety. In addition, two of the components of psychological capital, namely self-efficacy and resilience, play a mediating role in the relationship between the components of mindfulness and EFL classroom anxiety. Implications are discussed and suggestions for further research are given.

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Funding

The authors have received no funding conducting the present study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, Salman Farsi University of Kazerun, Kazerun, Iran

    Yahya Gordani

  2. Department of psychology, Salman Farsi University of Kazerun, Kazerun, Iran

    Marzieh Sadeghzadeh

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  1. Yahya Gordani
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  2. Marzieh Sadeghzadeh
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Contributions

Both authors have equally contributed to conducting the study and reporting the results.

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Correspondence to Yahya Gordani.

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The authors have no conflicts of interest/Competing interests.

Statement of Ethical Approval

Present study is approved by the committee of ethics in research of Salman Farsi University of Kazerun.

Informed Consent

As part of the instruction to fill in the research questionnaires, all participants in the study were informed about the objective of the study and they were ensured that the results will be used and published for research purposes only. Participants are all adults above eighteen years old and the study consent form is completed individually by each participant.

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Gordani, Y., Sadeghzadeh, M. Mindfulness and the Mediating Role of Psychological Capital in Predicting the Foreign Language Anxiety. J Psycholinguist Res 52, 1785–1797 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-023-09938-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-023-09938-3

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