Perceptual and Motor Skills最新文献

In language learning, communication is essential, where learners' desire and willingness to interact with others are significant in honing their communication capabilities alongside other necessary competencies. There are many factors that influence students' willingness to communicate (WTC), among which the correlation between emotional intelligence and WTC still needs to be further researched. To investigate the emotional intelligence profiles of Chinese EFL college students and to examine different levels of their willingness to communicate, we recruited 476 Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners across 11 provinces to complete our questionnaire. Through latent profile analysis (LPA) and one way analysis of variance, we found that there were four EI profiles of Chinese EFL college students: Emotionally Challenged (EC), Emotionally Struggling (ES), Emotionally Average (EA), and Emotionally Proficient (EP), among which most students (63%) fell into the EA profile. The EC profile (17%) was the second largest profile. We also found that each of the four profiles had unique WTC characteristics, with and different dimensions of WTC including, speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension. Notably, the EC profile demonstrated the lowest WTC level among the four profiles, whereas the EP profile displayed the highest overall WTC level. These findings are meaningful for comprehending students' emotional intelligence profiles within language learning environments, and they provide valuable insights for educators to address diverse students' needs to enhance their WTC.

While many studies have identified multiple benefits and affordances in using virtual reality (VR) technology in language learning, most have been qualitative, with few providing evidence of factors that may impact VR effectiveness for language learning or of the role of learners' unique psychological, environmental, and emotional experiences in language learning. Against this backdrop, we framed this study within social cognitive theory and surveyed 368 Chinese university students of English who were participating in VR-assisted language instruction to explore whether learners' foreign language learning enjoyment and boredom related to their learning engagement; we also investigated the mediating role of learning self-efficacy in these relationships. Our results suggested that (a) students learning English through VR-assisted instruction experienced a relatively high level of enjoyment but moderate level boredom; (b) foreign language learning enjoyment significantly (positively) predicted foreign language learning self-efficacy and engagement; and (c) foreign language learning boredom significantly (negatively) predicted foreign language learning self-efficacy, but not engagement; and foreign language learning self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between foreign language learning boredom and engagement, and partially mediated the significant relationship between foreign language learning enjoyment and engagement. Based on these findings, we suggest ways to improve VR-assisted language teaching and learning.

In the present study, we addressed (a) Chinese students' level of enjoyment in studying Japanese; (b) the independent and interactive predictive associations of student attitudes towards the Japanese language and their perceived Japanese proficiency with their Japanese classroom enjoyment; and (c) gender as a potential moderating variable in these relationships. Three hundred participants completed three questionnaires assessing their attitudes towards the Japanese language, perceived Japanese proficiency, and Japanese classroom enjoyment. Descriptive analysis, multiple regression analysis, and path analysis revealed the following: (a) high overall student enjoyment in the Japanese classroom; (b) student attitudes towards both Japanese and their perceived Japanese proficiency were significant positive predictors of their levels of Japanese classroom enjoyment; (c) there was no significant interaction in the relationship between student attitudes towards the Japanese language and their perceived Japanese proficiency and Japanese classroom enjoyment; and (d) gender differences significantly moderated the relationships between perceived Japanese proficiency and Japanese classroom enjoyment, characterized by a stronger relationship among female participants; but gender was not a significant mediator in the relationship between attitudes towards the Japanese language and Japanese classroom enjoyment. We discuss these findings and their pedagogical implications, as well as the limitations of this study and future research directions.

In this study, we present psychometrically validated Turkish versions of four popular foreign language learner emotion scales. They include the Foreign Language Classroom Peace of Mind Scale (Zhou et al., 2023), the Short-Form Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (Botes et al., 2021), the Short-Form Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Botes et al., 2022a), and the Foreign Language Classroom Boredom Scale (Li et al., 2023). We collected data from 1202 Turkish to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Cross-validation analyses confirmed the scales' applicability and reliability among these Turkish learners, and, measurement invariance (configural, metric, and scalar) analyses revealed consistency in respondents' emotional experiences across diverse educational levels, enabling valid cross-group comparisons. Although strict invariance across student subgroups was not achieved, our findings provide Turkish researchers with four valid instruments for collecting emotional data from Turkish learners. The scale means and relationships between the four emotions measured with these adapted scales were comparable to those established in previous studies.

Previous research has highlighted positive associations between physical education (PE) teachers' transformational leadership and their adolescent students' intentions to be active. However, no prior investigators have addressed mediating variables of students' motor self-efficacy and enjoyment. Our aim in this study was to re-analyze the relationships between teachers' transformational leadership style and PE students' intentions to be active, while also examining the roles of motor self-efficacy and enjoyment as potential mediators in these relationships. The 429 adolescents in our sample were aged 14-16 years (M = 14.97, SD = 0.85). To assess these variables, we used the Transformational Teaching Questionnaire (TTQ), the Motor Self-Efficacy Scale (MSES), the Intrinsic Satisfaction in Sport Instrument (SSI-EF), and the Intention of Being Physically Active Scale (MIFA). A structural equation model revealed significant and positive relationships between all these variables. Indirect effects were found between a transformational teacher leadership style and students' intentions to be active, through the students' motor self-efficacy and enjoyment as mediator variables, with enjoyment the most important mediating variable. Motor self-efficacy and enjoyment mediated the relationship between the teacher's transformational leadership and the intention to be active, as when students enjoyed themselves and felt capable of successfully performing an activity, they were more inclined to continue practicing that physical activity. This was likely the result of the support and individualized attention the teacher provided through transformational leadership. This type of leadership fosters an environment where students feel valued and motivated, increasing their positive experiences in physical education. Therefore, in this context, it is more likely that they will develop a stronger desire to remain physically active in the future. Thus, teachers might apply transformational leadership to promote students' increased self-efficacy and enjoyment as a means of influencing their future adherence to active leisure time behaviors.

Relative Age Effects (RAEs) have been widely reported trends in basketball participation, but research on the relationship between RAEs and competitive performance has been contradictory. We aimed to determine the magnitude of RAEs in elite youth basketball players and to analyze RAEs on key performance indicators (KPIs). We recorded and analyzed the incidence of early birthdates and the KPIs of 2487 youth basketball players (aged 16-19 years). We evaluated RAEs by means of the incidence of early birthdates using (i) Chi-square (χ²) goodness-of-fit tests to compare player differences in birthdate quartiles and (ii) Poisson regression analysis to evaluate birthdates as a continuous variable. We conducted Kruskal-Wallis tests separately for each age group to assess possible relationships between birthdate quartile differences and KPIs. We observed consistent moderate RAEs across all ages. The Poisson regression analysis showed that athletes born near the beginning of the year were 4.6-8.4 times more likely to have been included on the squad than athletes born towards the end of the year. We observed no significant differences between KPIs for differently aged athletes. However, 16-year-old athletes with first quartile birthdates showed higher KPIs than those with fourth quartile birthdates of the same calendar year. The potential bases for RAEs are complex and include the characteristic demands of sports competition at various competition levels and athletes' ages, individual factors and social factors. We discuss these and other potential bases. Basketball coaches and managers should keep RAEs in mind when selecting youth players to avoid a selection bias towards players born at the beginning of the year which may close out training opportunities and cause drop outs for talented but slightly younger players.

In the current study, we tested a Jordanian version of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency - Second Edition, Brief Form (BOT2-BF) for use with children with autism. Study participants were a convenience sample of 140 children in Jordan, aged 4-8 years, including70 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 70 children without disabilities. The BOT 2-BF consists of 12 items divided into eight main areas: fine motor skills, fine motor integration, manual dexterity, bilateral coordination, balance, speed and agility, coordination of the upper extremities, and strength. We administered the Jordanian version of the scale individually to all the participants and found it to have acceptable construct validity, internal item consistency, internal sub-scale correlations, discriminant validity for our two groups, and factorial validity on confirmatory factor analysis. The scale also had acceptable split-half reliability. This study is the first Arabic adaptation of the BOT-2BF, and it is the first study to show utility of this instrument for children with ASD. We present further recommendations for research and practice.

We aimed to investigate the association of body image perception / (dis)satisfaction with eating disorders symptoms. We conducted a cross-sectional university-based study with 534 students, aged 18 years or older, from a federal higher education institution specializing in health sciences and located in Southern Brazil in 2023. We evaluated eating disorder symptoms using the Brazilian version of the SCOFF screening tool (≥2 symptoms) and body image using a silhouette scale developed for Brazilian adults. The mean age of the sample (78.3% female) was 23.3 (SD = 6.2) years. The prevalence of eating disorder symptoms was 53.6% (95% CI: 49.3-57.8). In terms of body image, the prevalence of (dis)satisfaction was 64.6% (95% CI: 60.5-68.7) and of body image distortion was 53.4% (95% CI: 49.1-57.6). Students dissatisfied with their body image due to excess weight were 2.16 times more likely to report eating disorder symptoms (PR = 2.16; 95% CI: 1.66-2.80; p < .001). Similarly, students who overestimated their body size were 35% more likely to report eating disorder symptoms (PR = 1.35; 95% CI: 1.12-1.63; p = .002). In conclusion, we found a significant association between body image perception / (dis)satisfaction and symptoms of eating disorders in university students of health sciences.