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INTRODUCTION
As mastering a second/foreign language (L2) is a long process, L2 learners certainly will encounter failures and discouragements during this process. However, L2 learners’ reactions to these failures can be different. Some learners might consider failure as a sign of lack of intelligence and ability and might not put more effort into learning L2. Others might see failure as an essential part of language learning and put more effort into learning L2. Therefore, L2 learners’ perceptions of their L2 learning ability are linked to their effort in L2 learning. The relationship between these perceptions of L2 learning ability and effort in L2 learning can be explained by two constructs of language mindset and grit, respectively. Grit refers to "perseverance and passion for long-term goals" (Duckworth et al., 2007, p. 1087) and language mindset refers to individuals’ perceptions of their language learning ability (Lou & Noels, 2017a; Mercer & Ryan, 2009; Ryan & Mercer, 2012a).
These two noncognitive factors have recently attracted the attention of L2 researchers (Banse & Palacios, 2018; Ebadi et al., 2018; Feng & Papi, 2020; Lou & Noels, 2017a; Mercer & Ryan, 2009; Sudina & Plonsky, 2020; Teimouri et al., 2020; Wei et al., 2019), though the number of studies is scant and further research is required to deepen our understanding of the role of these two factors in L2 learning context. Several studies have indicated that people with different language mindsets have different goals for language learning and experience different levels of anxiety (Lou & Noels, 2016, 2017a). However, previous research has not examined whether students who endorse different language mindsets might differ in their grit levels. A fixed mindset, with its emphasis on fixed attributes, might not be conducive to showing grit in the face of language difficulties. Therefore, we hypothesize that growth mindset would be positively related to grit, while fixed mindset would be negatively related to grit. Moreover, previous research has shown that both grit (Akos & Kretchmar, 2017) and mindset (Mouratidis et al., 2017) might be related to academic achievement. In the same line, a few studies have reported a positive relation between grit and L2 achievement (Sudina & Plonsky, 2020; Teimouri et al., 2020; Wei et al., 2019), though the relation between language mindset and...