Development of a social-emotional foreign language learning scale (SEFLLS) for young adults

The social and emotional challenges of adjusting to university are inherently different from those faced by primary and secondary school students. This article describes the development and evaluation of a new instrument to measure university students’ social-emotional foreign language learning needs. A series of cross-sectional questionnaire surveys was conducted with four different samples of 1613 preparatory school students from a university to examine the psychometric properties of the 24-item Social-Emotional Foreign Language Learning Scale (SEFLLS). Results revealed a correlated three-factor structure: Self-regulation, Social Relations, and Decision-Making, with internal consistency values above .80. Scale scores provided evidence of adequate internal consistency and convergent validity. Confirmatory factor analysis attested to the discriminant validity of the scale. SEFLLS appears useful for research purposes with young adults at the university level, particularly those learning a foreign language. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.