While the significance of the cognitive language aptitude (aptitude) and the affective second language (L2) grit for L2 achievement has been well demonstrated, their comparative contributions and the mechanisms underlying their predictive effects remain insufficiently understood. To address this gap, this study examined the predictive effects of aptitude and L2 grit on L2 achievement with foreign language learning boredom (FLLB) as a mediator. The data was collected from 156 English-major university students in China and analysed via structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicated that (1) aptitude and L2 grit significantly and positively predicted L2 achievement with the former showing a stronger strength; (2) FLLB negatively mediated the effects of aptitude and the consistency of interest (CI) dimension of L2 grit on L2 achievement, but positively mediated the link between the perseverance of effort (PE) dimension of L2 grit and L2 achievement. Implications are discussed for future research and pedagogical endeavors.
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