The Positive Psychology of Chinese Students Learning English at UK Universities

The main aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between positive psychology (PP) variables, namely, self-regulation, mindset, psychological well-being and psychological adjustment, in a sample of Chinese master’s students studying in the UK on the one hand, and the English language learning activities in social and educational settings that they reported using to improve their English language proficiency on the other hand; and how the scores on the variables and the relationships between the variables changed between the beginning of the academic year (time 1) and mid-way through the academic year (time 2). A mixed-method research approach was adopted. Questionnaire and interview data were collected at time 1 (T1) and time 2 (T2). 152 and 167 participants completed questionnaires at T1 and T2 respectively, and face-to-face interviews were conducted concurrently with sixteen and fourteen participants at T1 and T2 respectively. SPSS and NVivo were the statistical tools used for questionnaire and interview data analyses. Analyses of the data indicated that there was a significant decrease in growth mindset and psychological adjustment scores (p