Advanced learners’ foreign language-related emotions across the four skills

• Published in: Studies in second language learning and teaching Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 127 - 147
• Main Authors: Piniel, Katalin, Albert, Ágnes
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kalisz Adam Mickiewicz University 01.03.2018; Adam Mickiewicz University Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts; Adam Mickiewicz University Department of English Studies; Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
• Subjects: Advanced Students; Anxiety; Coding; Communication (Thought Transfer); Content Analysis; Context Effect; Emotional Experience; Emotions; English (Second Language); English as a second language learning; Foreign Countries; foreign language classroom; Foreign language learning; Guidelines; Hungarian; Hungarian language; Individual Differences; Language; language learning; Language Skills; Language Usage; Majors (Students); Native Language; Paragraphs; Qualitative Research; Research design; Role; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Second language writing; Skills; Statistical Analysis; Undergraduate Students; Writing (Composition); Hungary (Budapest)
• ISSN: 2083-5205; 2084-1965; 2084-1965; 2083-5205
• DOI: 10.14746/ssllt.2018.8.1.6

Individual differences researchers have recently begun to investigate the concept of emotions and their role in language learning (MacIntyre, Gregersen, & Mercer, 2016). Our aim is to report on a project exploring English majors’ feelings related to their use of foreign languages. Using a qualitative research design, participants were asked to write a paragraph in their mother tongue (Hungarian) describing their emotional experiences in connection with foreign languages and one of the four language skills. Our database comprised altogether 166 paragraphs from 31 male and 135 female students, with 43 texts on listening, 35 on speaking, 47 on reading, and 41 on writing. With the help of content analytical techniques, the texts were divided into thematic units and coded by the two authors. A framework of academically-relevant emotions (Pekrun, 2014) was used to guide our initial coding and the categories were modified where it was felt necessary. Results indicate that the two emotions most frequently experienced by English majors are predominantly related to enjoyment and language anxiety, and these emotions vary not only according to the skill involved but also depending on the context of language use (in class or outside class).