Revalidating the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale in a new Context

A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Approach

Abstract

The Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (FLES) has been developed and validated in various contexts; however, the applicability of a validated FLES from one context to another is not well established. To address this gap, the present study systematically examined the applicability of the FLES by evaluating models proposed in prior studies and investigating the validity and reliability of the adapted FLES, specifically in the Japanese English as a foreign language context. We employed theory-driven confirmatory factor analysis, analyzing data from 390 Japanese university students across six universities. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to previously proposed two-factor and three-factor models of foreign language enjoyment that had been validated and used in different contexts. Our results indicated that three-factor models consistently exhibited better psychometric properties compared to the two-factor models. Among the models assessed, the model developed by Botes et al. (2021) demonstrated the best fit, showing that the previously validated scale was applicable to the Japanese English as a foreign language context. Modifications were also made to develop a refined model, and the results are discussed.