The concept of WTC was initially introduced by McCroskey and Baer (1985) about one’s performance in first language (L1). It was described as a “personality-based, trait-like predisposition which is relatively consistent across a variety of communication contexts and types of receivers” (McCroskey and Baer, 1985, p. 6). Several years later, MacIntyre et al. (1998) claimed that L1 WTC cannot completely picture one’s WTC in L2. They defined L2 WTC as “a readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a specific person or persons, using an L2” (MacIntyre et al., 1998, p. 547). In a heuristic model of L2 WTC, MacIntyre et al. (1998) depicted the variables leading a person into sharing their opinion, knowledge, and thoughts with other individuals in an L2 (Figure 1). With regard to MacIntyre et al.’s (1998) Heuristic Model of L2 WTC, Figure 1 shows that WTC stands at Layer II, L2 grit belongs to Layer VI, and PsyCap can be related to Layers V and VI. MacIntyre et al.’s (1998) Heuristic Model of L2 WTC implies that language learners with similar language proficiency levels may have various levels of WTC due to individual differences, variety in their personality-based features, and a series of psychological or social factors.

This model comprises six layers where the top three (i.e., communication behavior, behavioral intention, and situated antecedents) expand the dynamic and situated perspectives of L2 WTC, and the bottom three (i.e., motivational propensities, affective-cognitive context, and social-individual context) provide the original trait-like views. In the present study, L2 WTC refers to how willing EFL learners are to communicate and interact in English at a particular time. Henry and MacIntyre (2023) strongly advocate that the research on WTC in English should concentrate on the role of different variables contributing to an increase or decrease in one’s L2 WTC.

Several studies have already reported significant relationships between L2 WTC and language learners’ affective variables such as anxiety and motivation (Lee and Hsieh, 2019; Lee and Lee, 2020), their emotional intelligence (Gao et al., 2025), their psychological resources such as hope and resilience (Khajavy et al., 2019), and personality related factors such as L2 grit (Derakhshan and Fathi, 2024). Lee and Lee (2020) conducted a quantitative study to examine how L2 WTC is influenced by affective factors (risk-taking, motivation, self-confidence, and speaking anxiety) and virtual intercultural experiences. The hierarchical regression analyses on the data from 176 Korean graduate and undergraduate EFL students revealed that learners with higher levels of L2 grit and motivation and lower levels of anxiety displayed a higher level of L2 WTC. In another recent study in the Iranian context, Ebn-Abbasi et al. (2024) found that EFL learners’ ideal L2 self and growth language mindset fully mediated the influence of L2 grit on their WTC.

Grit is a personality characteristic which refers to “perseverance and passion for long-term goals” (Duckworth et al., 2007, p. 1087). According to Teimouri et al. (2022), L2 grit is comprised of two dimensions: (a) the perseverance of effort (PE) which is one’s capability of persevering despite adversity, and (b) the consistency of interests (CI) which is an individual’s capability of keeping interests alive while encountering failures or challenges.

The theoretical frameworks underlying the concept of grit are positive psychology (Derakhshan et al., 2022) and Broaden-and-Build Theory (Fredrickson, 2001): the first theory emphasizes a shift from the preoccupied negative attributes of individuals toward an understanding of their positive characteristics (Azari Noughabi et al., 2024). The second denotes that positive emotions can expand one’s momentary thought-action repertoire, thereby broadening their psychological and cognitive resources. Research on grit has revealed that grittier individuals tend to study and work more persistently and longer, resulting in higher academic and professional performances (Duckworth et al., 2007); thus, grit is a significant predictor of one’s success in academic or non-academic areas (Teimouri et al., 2022).

A line of inquiry has examined the impact of grit on L2 WTC. Lee and Drajati (2019) investigated the relationship between 183 Indonesian EFL learners’ L2 grit along with several other affective variables (self-confidence, L2 speaking anxiety, and motivation), L2 WTC, and their informal digital learning of English. The findings indicated that L2 grit was among the significant predictors of L2 WTC. In a similar study, Lee and Hsieh (2019) found that the grittier learners displayed higher L2 WTC in inside-class, outside-class, and digital language learning contexts. Lee (2022) investigated whether EFL learners’ grit and classroom enjoyment are associated with their L2 WTC and found that the PE dimension of grit and classroom enjoyment predicted all cohorts’ WTC in L2, while the CI dimension of grit did not predict L2 WTC among all samples.

Cheng (2021) examined how L2 grit and future L2 self-guides might predict motivated outcomes measured by L2 WTC. Cheng (2021) found that the PE component of grit showed a superior predictive power over learners’ L2 WTC, compared to the CI component. Lee and Taylor (2024) conducted a mixed-method study to investigate if positive constructs (L2 grit, growth mindset, and classroom enjoyment) and Extramural English can predict 160 primary school students L2 WTC in the classroom and out of class settings in Hong Kong. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that enjoyment, grit, and Extramural English predicted learners’ L2 WTC in class, while grit, growth mindset, and Extramural English predicted L2 WTC out of classroom. Azari Noughabi and Ghasemi (2024) investigated the mediating role of L2 grit on the relationship between 313 Iranian EFL learners’ WTC and their informal digital learning of English and found that L2 grit fully mediated the relationship between the two variables. In a recent study on the mediating role of enjoyment and anxiety in the relationship between grit and WTC of 238 Chinese junior high school students, Li (2024) found that PE and CI, as two aspects of grit, significantly predicted learners’ WTC. In addition, the enjoyment mediated the relationships between PE and WTC and between CI and WTC. In a recent study, Li (2025) found that PE correlated with Chinese undergraduate English learners’ meaning-focused and form-focused L2 WTC and anxiety mediated the relationship between learners’ CI and form-focused L2 WTC. In another recent study, Bensalem et al. (2025) found that Saudi EFL learners’ grit and enjoyment had significant influence on their WTC in blended learning environments.

After all, in spite of a multitude of studies on EFL learners’ WTC and grit (e.g., Derakhshan and Fathi, 2024; Lan et al., 2021; Lee, 2022; Sun et al., 2024), the factors that mediate the relationship between EFL learners’ domain-specific grit and L2 WTC has yet to be explored in various EFL contexts (Ebn-Abbasi et al., 2024; Li, 2025). In particular, scant research attention has been paid to exploring the mediating role of psychological capital as a psychological factor which has been recently introduced to the field of applied linguistics (Derakhshan and Azari Noughabi, 2024).

The positive psychology movement, a shift against the negative psychological approaches, has been promoted since the beginning of the present century. As a result of this movement, Luthans (2002) named a novel concept called positive organizational behavior which refers to practicing and investigating one’s positive psychological capacities that can be measured and enhanced to improve occupational performance. Later on, this concept gave birth to another novel construct called PsyCap (Luthans et al., 2007) which describes one’s state of positive psychology rising to battle challenges and keep moving forward (King et al., 2020; Luthans et al., 2019). Therefore, PsyCap is derived from positive organizational behavior, and it lies within the framework of the positive psychology theory.

According to Luthans et al. (2007), PsyCap is comprised of four sub-constructs of hope (i.e., a person’s abilities and perseverance to choose pathways that can successfully lead them into their objectives), self-efficacy (i.e., one’s confidence to confront challenges and take actions to overcome those challenges), resilience (i.e., one’s ability to bounce back from failures and cope with adversity), and optimism (i.e., a person’s positive attitude toward life as well as belief in existence of solutions to problems). Luthans et al. (2007) state that a combination of these four components forms a core construct of PsyCap that is more influential in effect and broader than any of the subscales alone. Nevertheless, the four components of PsyCap represent state-like constructs that may develop and change over time (Luthans et al., 2019). In the present study, PsyCap refers to EFL learners’ positive psychological resources including optimism, resilience, hope, and efficacy.

Initial research on PsyCap was conducted in organizational settings (Luthans et al., 2004, 2006), using Psychological Capital Scale (Luthans et al., 2007) designed for employees. King and Caleon (2021) adapted this scale to make it relevant to the educational field, thereby developing the 16-item School Psychological Capital Scale. Since then, research on this construct in the educational setting has continued to emerge (e.g., Kang et al., 2021; Kang and Wu, 2022). Recently, Wu and Kang (2025) have examined the validity and reliability of the PsyCap scale in the EFL context. They reported excellent psychometric properties for the 16-item EFL PsyCap scale and verified that “EFL PsyCap is a hierarchical construct underpinned by its four first-order components of optimism, hope, resilience, and self-efficacy” (Wu and Kang, 2025, p. 645).

A review the related literature suggests that a few studies have examined EFL learners’ PsyCap. Khajavy et al. (2019) conducted a study to investigate the role of 317 Iranian EFL learners’ PsyCap in their WTC in L2, L2 achievement, and L2 motivational self-system. Based on the results of structural equation modeling, PsyCap positively and significantly predicted the learners’ L2 WTC, L2 achievement, and L2 motivational self-system, thereby confirming the major impact of PsyCap in L2 education. Luthans et al. (2019) explored the mediational role of PsyCap in the relationship between students’ grit and their academic performance. The findings revealed that PsyCap was a significant mediator of the relationship between learners’ grit and academic performance. Nevertheless, as mentioned earlier, not until recently, have the prediction of PsyCap resources and the domain-specificity of its scale been investigated in an EFL context. In a recent attempt, Wu and Kang (2025) validated the 16-item EFL PsyCap scale, developed by King and Caleon (2021). Furthermore, their study indicated that EFL PsyCap resources positively predict EFL performance, behavioral engagement and academic enjoyment, while negatively predicting academic anxiety and boredom. All in all, a review of the related literature indicates that there is a dearth of research to explore the associations among EFL learners’ WTC, L2 grit, and psychological capital, using a domain-specific PsyCap scale. Therefore, this study attempts to shed light on this under-explored area of research. Figure 2 displays the hypothesized model of the current study.

A total of 664 Chinese EFL learners, the majority of whom were female (77.4%), took part in this research. The majority of the participants were English major students. They were from a wide age range (from 15 to 49 years old). In addition, most of the participants were undergraduate EFL learners. They were initially requested to report their demographic information and sign the informed consent form. Next, they were expected to respond to the items of three questionnaires that measured their L2 grit, L2 WTC, and PsyCap in L2 learning. 58.7% of the participants were English major students, followed by non-English major students (35.5%). 5.7% of the participants were not educating in universities. Table 1 demonstrates the demographic information of the participants.

The data for this study were collected from Chinese EFL learners. The participants were kindly invited to voluntarily take part in this research by completing an online survey formed and designed through Wenjuanxing (the equivalent of SurveyMonkey in China). The link of the survey, which contained one part for demographics and three scales for the three variables, was shared with the participants through WeChat and email. Snowball sampling was obtained to recruit the sample. Initially, the participants were expected to sign the informed consent form while they were assured that both their responses and identities would be kept anonymous and confidential. Furthermore, the items of the three scales utilized in this study were written in the English language, and no randomization of the items was involved for each participant. The data for this study were collected from March 2024 to April 2024 while the participants could take as long as they wished to fill out the questionnaires.

Initially, the data were analyzed for the sake of ensuring a lack of missing value as well as data normality. After that, the researchers used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test how well the variables represented the number of constructs. In addition, partial least squares structural equation modeling was conducted via AMOS 24 to focus on predicting variables by identifying the relationships between observed variables and underlying constructs (Hair and Alamer, 2022). Next, to assess model fit (Bentler, 2007), several indices were used: Tucker Lewis index (TLI), the goodness of fit (GFI), the chi-square/df ratio (χ²/df), the comparative fit index (CFI), standardized root mean square error of approximation (SRMR), and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA). To achieve a good model fit, the values of SRMR and RMSEA should be less than 0.08 and the values of TLI and CFI should be above 0.90 (Bentler, 2007). Furthermore, mediation parameters suggested by Zhao et al.’s (2010) were considered.

In the present study, a mediation model of the relationship between L2 grit and WTC was hypothesized with PsyCap as the mediator. The hypothesized model of the current research is depicted in Figure 2. The following research hypotheses were made:

Mediation analysis was conducted to test the direct (A1) and indirect (B1 + C1) effects of L2 grit on L2 WTC. A partial mediation occurs when both direct and indirect effects are significant. Full mediation is claimed when only indirect path is statistically significant. To run the mediation analysis in the present study, a maximum likelihood estimator with a 5,000-sample bootstrapping (95% confidence interval) was utilized.

Descriptive statistics, shown in Table 2, revealed that the skewness and kurtosis values were acceptable in range (±2), thereby confirming the normal distribution of the data (Kunnan, 1998).

Table 2 also presents the correlation coefficients between EFL learners’ L2 grit, PsyCap, and WTC. The calculated estimates showed significant and linear relationships between the variables. Furthermore, given that the correlations were not too high (r > 0.80), there was no possibility of multicollinearity (Field, 2013). Additionally, the VIF values did not surpass 2.014.

The findings of the present study implied the criticality of positive psychological resources in developing WTC. Accordingly, EFL learners need to become aware of the positive psychological resources they can use to direct their practices to learning English. EFL teachers are recommended to consider their students’ psychological potentials and have specific plans for improving these positive capacities. Positive psychological interventions can be one useful option for promoting EFL learners’ hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. In addition, it would be beneficial to introduce coping strategies for addressing challenges in the path of successful communication in L2. Another implication is to cultivate a growth mindset among EFL learners in classroom settings with the ultimate aim of promoting hope and optimism as two cornerstones of PsyCap. One way to do so can be encouraging EFL learners to share their positive experiences that had yielded positive outcomes. Reflecting on past experiences can also help learners believe that success is inherently interwoven with ups and downs. Incorporating reflective journaling into English classes is recommended as it can help EFL learners manage their anxiety and stress, particularly in speaking tasks.

The findings also imply that grit will result in higher L2 WTC if language learners’ psychological resources are summoned. EFL teachers can initially introduce easier communicative tasks and gradually increase the difficulty level of the tasks. EFL teachers can foster their students’ self-efficacy through achievable challenges by designing proper tasks beyond their current level of language proficiency and scaffolding them with personalized support. When most of the learners are able to complete L2 communicative tasks, they achieve a sense of accomplishment which in turn can promote their efficacy and hope. Therefore, they will see that their efforts are going to have a happing ending. Furthermore, EFL teachers can model the way a student can address communicative challenges by applying various learning strategies. Unfortunately, EFL learners cannot handle L2 tasks due to unfamiliarity with communicative skills and strategies. Additionally, EFL teachers can ask the learners and their peers to create a list of possible solutions for the challenges they face during communicating in L2. Finally, creating a loving classroom environment where teachers care about their learners, use a sense of humor, react to learners’ mistakes with kindness, and encourage team work activities can enrich learners’ positive psychological resources and increase their tendency to interact in L2.