Validation of Spanish Versions of Foreign Language Learning Enjoyment Scales

Abstract

Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) has become one of the most extensively studied emotions in the FL learning field since the publication of Dewaele and MacIntyre’s (2014) article, which included a measure of FLE widely used in later studies. The extension of the original instrument demonstrated the need to obtain a shorter measuring tool for this construct without compromising its validity and reliability. Given that, to date, no FLE measurement instrument has been validated in Spanish, this study had two objectives: the translation into Spanish and the cultural adaptation-validation of the original FLE scale, and the comparative psychometric evaluation of FLE scales reduced and validated in different contexts. The participants were 184 adult learners of English, French, and German from the Official School of Languages in Lucena (Spain). The study concludes that the Foreign Language Learning Enjoyment Scale in the Classroom (EDALEC) in Spanish is a valid, reliable, and adequate tool to be used with adult FL students in Spain, and that the reduced scale with the most satisfactory model fit values to the data is the 11-item scale by Li, Jiang and Dewaele (2018). These findings open the door for the EDALEC in Spanish and the reduced scales derived from the original FLE measuring tool to be validated in other cultural and educational contexts in the Spanish-speaking world.