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Article History

Received: 30 March 2024

Accepted: 23 September 2024

First Online: 28 September 2024

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: A detailed application outlining the study’s aims, methods, potential risks, and protective measures for participants was submitted to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Faculty of English Language and Culture at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Following a comprehensive review, ethical approval was obtained from the IRB and signed by the dean on June 28, 2023. There was no specific approval number attached to the approval. All procedures performed in the study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

: Before the study, the research assistant, an English teacher in the target school was responsible for collecting signed informed consent forms from all the participants and their guardians involved in the study. Participants were fully informed about the purpose of the study, the procedures included, and their rights to withdraw at any time. Consent was obtained through written forms in July, 2023, and these forms explicitly requested permission to use the data for research purposes. Furthermore, participants were assured of the confidentiality and anonymity of their responses.