Development and Initial Validation of the L2‐Teacher Grit Scale. Issue 1 (9th May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sudina, Ekaterina; Vernon, Tony; Foster, Henry; Del Villano, Heather; Hernandez, Shoshannah; Beck, Daniel; Plonsky, Luke
• Is Part Of: TESOL quarterly. Volume 55:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 156
• Page End: 184
• Publication Date: 2020-05-09
• Subjects: English language -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Langue seconde; Anglais (Langue); Enseignement; Pâeriodique âelectronique (Descripteur de forme); 428.007
• DOI: 10.1002/tesq.581
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0039-8322

Abstract

Abstract : Grit—"perseverance and passion for long‐term goals" (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007, p. 1087)—has attracted the attention of researchers in fields ranging from psychology to business to education (e.g., Robertson‐Kraft & Duckworth, 2014; Robins, 2019). Continuing the line of research that explores the domain specificity of grit (e.g., F. T. C. Schmidt, Fleckenstein, Retelsdorf, Eskreis‐Winkler, & Möller, 2017), this study introduces the L2‐Teacher Grit Scale (L2TGS) developed to measure grit specifically among English language teachers ( N = 202). The results demonstrated, first, that the L2TGS possessed sufficient internal‐consistency reliability (ω = .77). A subsequent principal components analysis revealed a two‐component structure (POV = 50.87%), thus yielding evidence in favor of construct validity. A one‐tailed Pearson's test for positive correlation between Duckworth and Quinn's (2009) domain‐general Grit–S and L2TGS scores established concurrent validity of the new measure ( rc = .84). Lastly, the L2TGS exhibited a stronger predictive validity, explaining approximately 21% of the variance in L2‐teacher retention‐related scores compared to the Grit–S, which was a statistically nonsignificant predictor accounting for 4% of the total variance. Of note, female teachers had higher levels of grit than male teachers. In sum, our findings indicate support for an occupation‐specific approach to grit. Abstract :