The mediating role of emotion regulation in the link between enjoyment, anxiety, and emotional disengagement in multilingual learning: a response surface analysis

While recent second language emotion research has increasingly examined foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA), most studies treat them as separate predictors, leaving unclear how their combined patterns link to emotional disengagement (ED) via emotion regulation. To address this gap, the present study examined how congruent and incongruent combinations of FLE and FLCA relate to cognitive reappraisal (ERCR), expressive suppression (ERES), and ED among multilingual international students in China. Data from 656 international students were analyzed via response surface analysis and mediation analysis. The findings reveal that distinct FLE-FLCA configurations correlate with divergent patterns of ERCR, ERES, and ED: ERCR is more pronounced when FLE outweighs FLCA, whereas ERES prevails when FLCA exceeds FLE; ED is minimised at the configuration of relatively high FLE paired with low FLCA. Further, mediation analyses confirm that ERCR and ERES mediate the link between FLE-FLCA configurations and ED, with ERCR exerting a more robust mediating effect. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that multilingual learners’ classroom functioning depends not only on individual emotions in isolation, but also on the coexistence and regulation of positive and negative emotions.