SavedAdd your journal

Journals / The Literacy Trek / 2026 / Volume: 12 Issue: 1

Adapting the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale for Children

Selami Aydın(ISTANBUL MEDENIYET UNIVERSITY)
Damla Nur Akkaya(SAKARYA UNIVERSITY)0000-0001-8238-7154
Pages
—
Publication Date
2026-06-30
🏛️Bibliographic metadata and full text access for this article are provided via DergiPark.
DergiPark Record ↗
✨

AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

Findings revealed that the FLES-C is both valid and reliable, supporting a one-factor structure.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

🎯
Objective & Hypothesis:Although learning English as a foreign language (EFL) is compulsory in early education in many countries, research has mainly concentrated on cognitive aspects and the negative emotional experiences associated with language learning among young learners.
📊
Key Findings & Data:This study aims to adapt the Turkish version of the Foreign Language Learning Enjoyment Scale (Aydın et al., 2024) for children, resulting in the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale for Children (FLES-C).
💡
Conclusion & Impact:Findings revealed that the FLES-C is both valid and reliable, supporting a one-factor structure.
🔬Design:Survey & Empirical Study
📍Scope:2024 Verileri
⚙️Variables:English as a foreign language learning · the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale for Children · Enjoyment

Abstract

Although learning English as a foreign language (EFL) is compulsory in early education in many countries, research has mainly concentrated on cognitive aspects and the negative emotional experiences associated with language learning among young learners. Moreover, investigations into positive emotional experiences, specifically foreign language enjoyment (FLE) in the EFL context, have predominantly focused on adolescents and adults, with young learners receiving comparatively little attention. Thus, there is a growing need for a valid and reliable tool to assess FLE among children in their native languages, as the existing instruments are primarily designed for use in English. This study aims to adapt the Turkish version of the Foreign Language Learning Enjoyment Scale (Aydın et al., 2024) for children, resulting in the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale for Children (FLES-C). The study involved 11 participants in the pilot phase, 189 for Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), 478 for Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), 77 for concurrent validity testing, and 69 for the test-retest reliability assessment. Following the administration of a background questionnaire and the FLES-C, statistical procedures, including EFA, CFA, internal consistency analysis, concurrent validity checks, and test-retest reliability testing, were conducted. Findings revealed that the FLES-C is both valid and reliable, supporting a one-factor structure. Additionally, the scale showed a strong association with external criteria and exhibited high temporal stability.

🔖

Cite This Article

Aydın, S., Akkaya, D. N. (2026). Adapting the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale for Children. The Literacy Trek, Volume: 12 Issue: 1. https://doi.org/10.47216/literacytrek.1931056

📄 Full Text PDF Viewer

📄

PDF görüntüleyici hazırlanıyor...

References (53)

  1. AERA, APA, & NCME. (2014). Standards for educational and psychological testing. American Educational Research Association.
  2. Anastasi, A. & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th ed.). Prentice Hall.
  3. Aragão, R. (2011). Beliefs and emotions in foreign language learning. System, 39(3), 302–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2011.07.003
  4. Aydın, S., Harputlu, L., Uştuk, Ö., Çelik, Ş. S., & Güzel, S. (2021). Difficulties in collecting data from children aged 7–12. International Journal of Teacher Education and Professional Development, 4(1), 89–101. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJTEPD.2021010106
  5. Aydın, S., Tekin, I., & Akkaş, F. D. (2024). Construction and validation of the foreign language learning enjoyment scale. Psychology in the Schools, 61(2), 657–670. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.23076
  6. Boateng, G., Neilands, T., Frongillo, E., Melgar-Quiñonez, H., & Young, S. (2018). Best practices for developing and validating scales for health, social, and behavioral research: A primer. Frontiers in Public Health, 6, 149. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00149
  7. Botes, E., Dewaele, J.-M., & Greiff, S. (2021). The development and validation of the Short Form of the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale. The Modern Language Journal, 105(4), 858–876. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12741
  8. Derakhshan, A., Kruk, M., Mehdizadeh, M., & Pawlak, M. (2022). Activity-induced boredom in online EFL classes. ELT Journal, 76(1), 58–68. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccab072
  9. Dewaele, J.-M. (2015). On emotions in foreign language learning and use. The Language Teacher, 39(3), 13–15. https://doi.org/10.37546/JALTTLT39.3-3
  10. Dewaele, J.-M. (2022). The predictors of exam performance of Kazakh university students and secondary school pupils learning Turkish: An exploratory investigation. ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 173(1), 94–119. https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.21019.dew
  11. Dewaele, J.-M., & Alfawzan, M. (2018). Does the effect of enjoyment outweigh that of anxiety in foreign language performance? Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 8(1), 21–45. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2018.8.1.2
  12. Dewaele, J.-M., Chen, X., Padilla, A. M., & Lake, J. (2019). The flowering of positive psychology in foreign language teaching and acquisition research. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2128. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02128
  13. Dewaele, J.-M., Guedat‐Bittighoffer, D., & Dat, M. A. (2025). Foreign language enjoyment overcomes anxiety and boredom to boost oral proficiency in the first year of English foreign language learning. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 35(1), 152–167. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12607
  14. Dewaele, J.-M., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2014). The two faces of Janus? Anxiety and enjoyment in the foreign language classroom. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4(2), 237–274. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2014.4.2.5
  15. Dewaele, J.-M., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2016). Foreign language enjoyment and foreign language classroom anxiety: The right and left feet of the language learner. In T. Gregersen, P. D. MacIntyre, & S. Mercer (Eds.), Positive psychology in SLA (pp. 215–236). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783095360-010
  16. Dewaele, J.-M., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2019). The predictive power of multicultural personality traits, learner and teacher variables on foreign language enjoyment and anxiety. In M. Sato & S. Loewen (Eds.), Evidence-based second language pedagogy: A collection of Instructed Second Language Acquisition studies. (pp. 263–286). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351190558-12
  17. Dewaele, J.-M., & Proietti Ergün, A. L. (2020). How different are the relations between enjoyment, anxiety, attitudes/motivation and course marks in pupils’ Italian and English as foreign languages? Journal of the European Second Language Association, 4(1), 45 –57. https://doi.org/10.22599/jesla.65
  18. Dewaele, J.-M., Sanz Ferrer, M., Kamal Ahmed, I., & Albakistani, A. (2024). Does multilingualism affect foreign language classroom anxiety and foreign language enjoyment? Porta Linguarum Revista Interuniversitaria de Didáctica de Las Lenguas Extranjeras, 9, 13–29. https://doi.org/10.30827/portalin.viIX.29895
  19. Djambazova-Popordanoska, S. (2016). Implications of emotion regulation on young children’s emotional wellbeing and educational achievement. Educational Review, 68(4), 497–515. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2016.1144559
  20. Downing, S. M. (2003). Validity: On the meaningful interpretation of assessment data. Medical Education, 37(9), 830–837. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2923.2003.01594.x
  21. Dunn, T. J., Baguley, T., & Brunsden, V. (2014). From alpha to omega: A practical solution to the pervasive problem of internal consistency estimation. British Journal of Psychology, 105(3), 399–412. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12046
  22. Fabes, R. A., Eisenberg, N., Jones, S., Smith, M., Guthrie, I., Poulin, R., Shepard, S., & Friedman, J. (1999). Regulation, emotionality, and preschoolers’ socially competent peer interactions. Child Development, 70(2), 432–442. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00031
  23. Ghasemi, B., & Hashemi, M. (2011). Foreign language learning during childhood. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 28, 872–876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.160
  24. Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., & Tatham, R. L. (2019). Multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). Pearson.
  25. Holland, P. W., & Wainer, H. (1993). Differential item functioning. Lawrence Erlbaum.
  26. Jin, Y., MacIntyre, P. D., Jiang, N., & Ren, J. (2025). Understanding pre-adolescent learners’ foreign language enjoyment: a mixed-methods study on Chinese primary school students of English. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 46(4), 1059–1080. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2023.2221676
  27. Jin, Y., & Zhang, L. J. (2019). A comparative study of two scales for foreign language classroom enjoyment. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 126(5), 1024–1041. https://doi.org/10.1177/0031512519864471
  28. Jin, Y., & Zhang, L. J. (2021). The dimensions of foreign language classroom enjoyment and their effect on foreign language achievement. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 24(7), 948–962. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1526253
  29. Kamenická, J. (2021). Apple Tree Model of Emotion-Involved Processing: Videos for emotions and foreign language learning. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 12(1), 103–116. https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2021.1.103.116
  30. Kane, M. T. (1992). An argument-based approach to validity. Psychological Bulletin, 112(3), 527–535. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.3.527
  31. Li, C., Jiang, G., & Dewaele, J.-M. (2018). Understanding Chinese high school students’ foreign language enjoyment: Validation of the Chinese Version of the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale. System, 76, 183–196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2018.06.004
  32. Marcoulides, K. M., & Raykov, T. (2019). Evaluation of variance inflation factors in regression models using latent variable modeling methods. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 79(5), 874–882. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164418817803
  33. Mertler, C. A., & Vannatta Reinhart, R. (2017). Advanced and multivariate statistical methods: Practical application and interpretation (6th ed.). Routledge.
  34. Messick, S. (1995). Validity of psychological assessment: Validation of inferences from persons’ responses and performances as scientific inquiry into score meaning. American Psychologist, 50(9), 741–749. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.50.9.741
  35. Nakanishi, Y., & Takeuchi, O. (2024). Validating the foreign language enjoyment scale for young learners: An exploratory structural equation modeling approach. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 3(3), 100167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmal.2024.100167
  36. Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
  37. Pavelescu, L. M., & Petrić, B. (2018). Love and enjoyment in context: Four case studies of adolescent EFL learners. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 8(1), 73–101. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2018.8.1.4
  38. Schweder, S., Raufelder, D., & Wulff, T. (2022). Adolescents’ goals, self-efficacy, and positive emotions – how important is the learning context? International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 10(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/21683603.2020.1791771
  39. Seligman, M. E. P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.5
  40. Shao, K., Stockinger, K., Marsh, H. W., & Pekrun, R. (2026). Applying control-value theory for examining multiple emotions in L2 classrooms: Validating the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire–Second Language Learning. Language Teaching Research, 30(1), 288–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688221144497
  41. Sireci, S. G. (2020). De-“constructing” test validation. Chinese/English Journal of Educational Measurement and Evaluation, 1(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.59863/CKHH8837
  42. Strayer, J. (1986). Children’s attributions regarding the situational determinants of emotion in self and others. Developmental Psychology, 22(5), 649–654. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.22.5.649
  43. Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2014). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). Pearson.
  44. Tomporowski, P. D., McCullick, B. A., & Pesce, C. (2015). Enhancing children’s cognition with physical activity games. Human Kinetics.
  45. Tsang, A., & Dewaele, J. -M. (2024). The relationships between young FL learners’ classroom emotions (anxiety, boredom, & enjoyment), engagement, and FL proficiency. Applied Linguistics Review, 15(5), 2015–2034. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2022-0077
  46. Tsang, A., & Lee, J. S. (2023). The making of proficient young FL speakers: The role of emotions, speaking motivation, and spoken input beyond the classroom. System, 115, 103047. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2023.103047
  47. Vandenberg, R. J., & Lance, C. E. (2000). A review and synthesis of the measurement invariance literature: Suggestions, practices, and recommendations for organizational research. Organizational Research Methods, 3(1), 4–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/109442810031002
  48. Wang, H., Wang, Y., & Li, S. (2023). Unpacking the relationships between emotions and achievement of EFL learners in China: Engagement as a mediator. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1098916. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1098916
  49. Watkins, M. W. (2018). Exploratory factor analysis: A guide to best practice. Journal of Black Psychology, 44(3), 219–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798418771807
  50. Xia, L., Bak, T. H., Vega-Mendoza, M., & Sorace, A. (2023). A longitudinal investigation of the effects of language instruction versus immersion on cognitive functions in young adult Chinese speakers learning English. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 45(1), 189–211. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263122000158
  51. Xia, Y., & Yang, Y. (2019). RMSEA, CFI, and TLI in structural equation modeling with ordered categorical data: The story they tell depends on the estimation methods. Behavior Research Methods, 51(1), 409–428. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-018-1055-2
  52. Yeşilçınar, S., Dewaele, J. -M., & Erdemir, N. (2025). The psychometric validation of Turkish versions of four scales: The Foreign Language Enjoyment, Peace of Mind, Boredom, and Classroom Anxiety Scales. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 132(1), 61–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/00315125241280333
  53. Yu, Q. (2022). A Review of foreign language learners’ emotions. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 827104. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.827104