The impact of resilience, hope, second language proficiency, and number of foreign languages on Chinese college students’ creativity

Creativity has been widely discussed as a contributor to foreign language (FL) learning. However, there is a lack of research that combines psychology and linguistics to investigate the complex mechanisms of creativity in FL learners. Thus, the present study explored whether and how psychological variables (i.e., resilience and hope) and linguistic variables (i.e., second language [L2] proficiency and number of FLs learned) jointly affect Chinese college FL students' creativity. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 282 students learning at least one FL at two Chinese universities; the responses were mediated and moderated using the PROCESS macro for SPSS. The results showed that: (1) FL learners' resilience, hope, and creativity were positively correlated; (2) the direct effect of resilience on creativity was not statistically significant; (3) hope had a significant positive mediating effect between resilience and creativity; (4) L2 proficiency had a positive moderating effect between resilience and hope; (5) and the number of FLs learned had a negative moderating effect between hope and creativity, which is a surprising finding that deserves attention. The results can provide theoretical and practical guidance for introducing positive psychology-related interventions and reforming instructional methods in FL teaching.