Exploring Achievement Emotions, Emotion Regulation and English Performance: A Comparative Study Between Chinese Middle School and College Students

This study examined the differences in the levels of and relations between achievement emotions, emotion regulation and English performance between Chinese middle school and university students. The participants were 347 8th graders and 460 s-year university students in Xi’an, Northwestern China, who, respectively, took an English test and answered questionnaires on achievement emotions, emotion regulation and background information. Correlational and regression analyses of the test scores and survey data revealed four major findings. (1) Most middle school and university students experienced medium to high positive emotions but low negative emotions and reported a low to medium use of emotion regulation. Yet, middle school students had significantly lower levels of anger and boredom, worse English performance and greater overall emotion regulation than university students did. (2) Middle school students had greater predictive power of both positive and negative emotions on English performance. (3) University students had greater predictive power of emotion regulation on the emotions. (4) Both middle school and university students’ cognitive reappraisal powerfully positively predicted their English performance, and middle school students’ expressive suppression strongly negatively predicted the latter. Hence, suggestions for second/foreign language instructors and learners are discussed.