The relationship between mindset and causal attribution in the EFL context

This quantitative study aims to explore the relationship between mindset and causal attribution and to investigate agents of having fixed and growth mindset in the EFL context at a foundation university in Turkey. The data were collected through Mindset Quiz which includes 20 items, Achievement Attributions Questionnaire including 23 items and Demographic Questionnaire. Turkish versions of the scales were utilized during this phase. This study was carried out in the School of Foreign Languages at Çağ University in 2019-2020 academic years, with 380 participants. The data analyzed by Descriptive Statistics, T-test, and Pearson Correlation using SPSS 22.0. The findings revealed that there was a weak but positive correlation between mindset and success attribution whereas there was a significant but negative correlation between mindset and failure attribution. In addition, students attributed their success to good rapport with their lecturers and they mostly attributed their failure to lack of attention. Besides, most of the students had growth mindset with fixed ideas. It was found out that participants believe the intelligence is malleable and instable, yet they also have hesitation and stereotypes. Moreover, there was a statistically significant relationship between type of mindset and gender, proficiency level, learning from the mistakes, having a family member who knows a foreign language, positive attitudes towards learning English, considering oneself successful in learning English, and success and failure attribution.