Keywords
L2 self system
social-contextual model
broaden and build theory
positivity ratio
How to Cite
Number of views: 4712
Number of downloads: 2549
Abstract
The role of basic emotions in SLA has been underestimated in both research and pedagogy. The present article examines 10 positive emotions (joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, and love) and 9 negative emotions (anger, contempt, disgust, embarrassment, guilt, hate, sadness, feeling scared, and being stressed). The emotions are correlated with core variables chosen from three well-known models of L2 motivation: Gardner’s integrative motive, Clément’s social-contextual model, and Dörnyei’s L2 self system. Respondents came from Italian secondary schools, and most participants were from monolingual Italian speaking homes. They described their motivation and emotion with respect to learning German in a region of Italy (South Tyrol) that features high levels of contact between Italians and Germans. Results show that positive emotions are consistently and strongly correlated with motivation-related variables. Correlations involving negative emotions are weaker and less consistently implicated in motivation. The positivity ratio, that is, the relative prevalence of positive over negative emotion, showed strong correlations with all of the motivation constructs. Regression analysis supports the conclusion that a variety of emotions, not just one or two key ones, are implicated in L2 motivation processes in this high-contact context.Funding
Esther Able
References
Aida, Y. (1994). Examination of Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope’s construct of foreign language anxiety: The case of students of Japanese. The Modern Language Journal, 78(2), 155-168.
Arnold, J., & Brown, H. D. (1999). A map of the terrain. In J. Arnold (Ed.), Affect in language learning (pp. 1-24). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bonell, L., & Winkler, I. (2006). Südtirols Autonomie [The autonomy of South-Tyrol]. Bozen: Südtiroler Landesregierung.
Clément, R. (1980). Ethnicity, contact and communicative competence in a second language. In H. Giles, W. P. Robinson, & P. M. Smith (Eds.), Language: Social psychological perspectives (pp. 147-154). Oxford: Pergamon.
Clément, R. (1986). Second language proficiency and acculturation: An investigation of the effects of language status and individual characteristics. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 5(4), 271-290.
Clément, R., & Baker, S. C. (2001). Measuring social aspects of L2 acquisition and use: Scale characteristics and administration (Technical report). Ottawa: School of Psychology, University of Ottawa.
Cohen, Y., & Norst, M. J. (1989). Fear, dependence and loss of self-esteem: Affective barriers in second language learning among adults. RELC Journal, 20(2), 61-77.
Cohn, M. A., Fredrickson, B. L., Brown, S. L., Mikels, J. A., & Conway, A. M. (2009). Happiness unpacked: Positive emotions increase life satisfaction by building resilience. Emotion, 9(3), 361-368.
Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason and the human brain. New York: Avon.
Dewaele, J.-M. (2002). Psychological and sociodemographic correlates of communicative anxiety in L2 and L3 production. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 6, 23-39.
Dewaele, J.-M. (2007). Predicting language learners’ grades in the L1, L2, L3 and L4: The effect of some psychological and sociocognitive variables. International Journal of Multilingualism, 4, 169-197.
Dewaele, J.-M. (2010). Multilingualism and affordances: Variation in self-perceived communicative competence and communicative anxiety in French L1, L2, L3 and L4. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 48, 105-129.
Dewaele, J.-M. (2012). Emotions in multiple languages. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dewaele, J. M., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2014). The two faces of Janus? Anxiety and enjoyment in the foreign language classroom. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4(2), 237-274.
Dewaele, J. M., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2016). Foreign language enjoyment and foreign language classroom anxiety: The right and left feet of the language learner. In T. Gregersen, P. D, MacIntyre, & S. Mercer (Eds.), Positive psychology in SLA (pp 215-236). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Dewaele, J-M., & Pavlenko, A. (2002). Emotion vocabulary in interlanguage. Language Learning, 52(2), 263-322.
Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Dörnyei, Z., & Chan, L. (2013). Motivation and vision: An analysis of future L2 self-images, sensory styles, and imagery capacity across two target languages. Language Learning, 63(3), 437-462.
Eichinger, L. (2002). South Tyrol: German and Italian in a changing world. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 23, 137-149.
Ekman, P. (1972). Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. In J. K. Cole (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation, 1971 (Vol. 19; pp. 207-283). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218-226.
Fredrickson, B. L. (2008). Promoting positive affect. In M. Eid & R. J. Larsen (Eds.), The science of subjective well-being (pp. 449-468). New York: Guilford.
Fredrickson, B. L. (2013a). Positive emotions broaden and build. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 1-53. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-407236-7.00001-2
Fredrickson, B. L. (2013b). Updated thinking on positivity ratios. American Psychologist, 68(9), 814-822. doi: 10.1037/a0033584
Fredrickson, B. L., & Losada, M. F. (2005). Positive affect and the complex dynamics of human flourishing. American Psychologist, 60(7), 678-686.
Gabryś-Barker, D., & Gałajda, D. (Eds.). (2016). Positive psychology perspectives on foreign language learning and teaching. Cham: Springer.
Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold.
Gardner, R. C. (2010). Motivation and second language acquisition: The socio-educational model. New York: Peter Lang.
Giles, H., Bourhis, R., & Taylor, D. (1977). Towards a theory of language in ethnic group relations. In H. Giles (Ed.), Language, ethnicity and intergroup relations (pp. 307-348). London: Academic Press.
Graham, C., Hamblin, A. W., & Feldstein, S. (2001). Recognition of emotion in English voices by speakers of Japanese, Spanish and English. IRAL-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 39(1), 19-37.
Gregersen, T., & Horwitz, E. K. (2002). Language learning and perfectionism: Anxious and non-anxious language learners’ reactions to their own oral performance. The Modern Language Journal, 86, 562-570.
Gregersen, T., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2014). Capitalizing on language learners’ individuality: From premise to practice. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Gregersen, T., MacIntyre, P. D., & Meza, M. D. (2014). The motion of emotion: Idiodynamic case studies of learners’ foreign language anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 98(2), 574-588.
Horwitz, E. K. (2010). Foreign and second language anxiety. Language Teaching, 43(2), 154-167.
Horwitz, E., Horwitz, M., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125-132. doi: 10.2307/327317
Islam, M. R., & Hewstone, M. (1993). Dimensions of contact as predictors of intergroup anxiety, perceived out-group variability, and out-group attitude: An integrative model. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19(6), 700-710.
Izard, C. E. (2007). Basic emotions, natural kinds, emotion schemas, and a new paradigm. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(3), 260-280.
Izard, C. E. (2010). The many meanings/aspects of emotion: Definitions, functions, activation, and regulation. Emotion Review, 2(4), 363-370.
Jin, Y., de Bot, K., & Keijzer, M. (2015). The anxiety-proficiency relationship and the stability of anxiety: The case of Chinese university learners of English and Japanese. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 5(1), 41-63.
Larsen, R. J., & Diener, E. (1987). Affect intensity as an individual difference characteristic: A review. Journal of Research in Personality, 21, 1-39.
Lazarus, R. S. (2003). Does the positive psychology movement have legs? Psychological Inquiry, 14(2), 93-109.
MacIntyre, P. D. (1999). Language anxiety: A review of literature for language teachers. In D. J. Young (Ed.), Affect in foreign language and second language learning (pp. 24-43). New York: McGraw Hill.
MacIntyre, P. D. (2002). Motivation, anxiety and emotion in second language acquisition. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Individual differences and instructed language learning (pp. 45-68). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
MacIntyre, P. D. (2007). Willingness to communicate in the second language: Understanding the decision to speak as a volitional process. Modern Language Journal, 91, 564-576.
MacIntyre, P. D. (in press). An overview of language anxiety research and trends in its development. In C. Gkonou, M. Daubney, & J.-M. Dewaele (Eds.), New insights into language anxiety: Theory, research and educational implications. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
MacIntyre, P. D., Baker, S. C., Clément, R., & Donovan, L. A. (2003). Sex and age effects on willingness to communicate, anxiety, perceived competence, and L2 motivation among junior high school French immersion students. Language Learning, 53(S1), 137-166.
MacIntyre, P. D., Clément, R., Dörnyei, Z., & Noels, K.A. (1998). Conceptualizing willingness to communicate in a L2: A situational model of L2 confidence and affiliation. Modern Language Journal, 82, 545-562.
MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1989). Anxiety and second language learning: Towards a theoretical clarification. Language Learning, 39, 251-275.
MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. C. (1994). The subtle effects of language anxiety on cognitive processing in the second language. Language Learning, 44(2), 283-305.
MacIntyre, P. D., & Gregersen, T. (2012). Emotions that facilitate language learning: The positive-broadening power of the imagination. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2(2), 193-213.
MacIntyre, P. D., Gregersen, T., & Mercer, S. (2016). Positive psychology in SLA. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
MacIntyre, P. D., & Mercer, S. (2014). Introducing positive psychology in SLA. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4, 153-172.
MacIntyre, P. D., & Serroul, A. (2015). Motivation on a per-second timescale: Examining approach-avoidance motivation during L2 task performance. In Z. Dörnyei, P. D. MacIntyre, & A. Henry (Eds.), Motivational dynamics in language learning (pp. 109-138). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Meraner, R. (2004). Sprache, sprachunterricht und sprachenpolitik in Südtirol [Language, language teaching and language policy in South Tyrol]. Bildung und Erziehung, 57, 54-76.
Molenaar, P. C. M., & Campbell, C. G. (2009). The new person-specific paradigm in psychology. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 112-117. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01619.x
Oberrauch, S. (2006). Ethnischer proporz und arbeitsvermittlungsvorrang [The principle of ethnic proportions and the priority of employment agency]. Innsbruck: Studia Universitätsverlag.
Oxford, R. L. (2013). The language of peace: Communicating to create harmony. Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
Oxford, R. L. (2016). Toward a psychology of well-being for language learners: The “EMPATHICS” vision. In P. MacIntyre, T. Gregersen, & S. Mercer (Eds.), Positive psychology and language learning (pp. 10-87). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Paladino, M.-P., Poddesu, L., Rauzi, M., Vaes, J., Cadinu, M., & Forer, D. (2009). Second language competence in the Italian-speaking population of Alto Adige/Südtirol: Evidence for linguistic stereotype threat. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 28, 222-243.
Pintrich, P. R., Marx, R. W., & Boyle, R. A. (1993). Beyond cold conceptual change: The role of motivational beliefs and classroom contextual factors in the process of conceptual change. Review of Educational Research, 63(2), 167-199.
Reeve, J. (2015). Understanding motivation and emotion (6th ed.) Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Rintell, E. M. (1984). But how did you feel about that? The learner's perception of emotion in speech. Applied Linguistics, 5(3), 255-264.
Rubenfeld, S., Clément, R., Lussier, D., Lebrun, M., & Auger, R. (2006). Second language learning and cultural representations: Beyond competence and identity. Language Learning, 56(4), 609-631.
Schweigkofler, A. (2000). South-Tyrol: Rethinking ethnolinguistic vitality. In S. Wolff (Ed.), German minorities in Europe (pp. 63-72). New York: Beghnan.
Seligman, M. E., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1), 5-14.
Solomon, R. L. (1980). The opponent-process theory of acquired motivation: The costs of pleasure and the benefits of pain. American Psychologist, 35(8), 691-712. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.35.8.691
Steininger, R. (2003). South Tyrol: A minority conflict of the twentieth century. London: Transaction.
Tafrate, R. C., Kassinove, H., & Dundin, L. (2002). Anger episodes in high‐and low‐trait‐anger community adults. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58(12), 1573-1590.
Taguchi, T., Magid, M., & Papi, M. (2009). The L2 motivational self-system amongst Chinese, Japanese, and Iranian learners of English: A comparative study. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (pp. 66-97). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Tropp, L. R., Erkut, S., Coll, C. G., Alarcon, O., & Garcia. H. A. V. (1999). Psychological acculturation: Development of a new measure for Puerto Ricans on the U.S. mainland. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 59(2), 351-367.
Ushioda, E. (2009). A person-in-context relational view of emergent motivation, self and identity. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (pp. 215-228). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Vincze, L., & Harwood, J. (2014). Objective local vitality and linguistic networks as predictors of perceived vitality. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 35(3), 209-215.
License
1.1 The Author hereby warrants that he/she is the owner of all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Work and that, within the scope of the present Agreement, the paper does not infringe the legal rights of another person. The owner of the copyright work also warrants that he/she is the sole and original creator thereof and that is not bound by any legal constraints in regard to the use or sale of the work.
1.2. The Publisher warrants that is the owner of the PRESSto platform for open access journals, hereinafter referred to as the PRESSto Platform.
2. The Author grants the Publisher non-exclusive and free of charge license to unlimited use worldwide over an unspecified period of time in the following areas of exploitation:
2.1. production of multiple copies of the Work produced according to the specific application of a given technology, including printing, reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means (reprography) and digital technology;
2.2. marketing authorisation, loan or lease of the original or copies thereof;
2.3. public performance, public performance in the broadcast, video screening, media enhancements as well as broadcasting and rebroadcasting, made available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them;
2.4. inclusion of the Work into a collective work (i.e. with a number of contributions);
2.5. inclusion of the Work in the electronic version to be offered on an electronic platform, or any other conceivable introduction of the Work in its electronic version to the Internet;
2.6. dissemination of electronic versions of the Work in its electronic version online, in a collective work or independently;
2.7. making the Work in the electronic version available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, in particular by making it accessible via the Internet, Intranet, Extranet;
2.8. making the Work available according to appropriate license pattern Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) as well as another language version of this license or any later version published by Creative Commons.
3. The Author grants the Publisher permission to reproduce a single copy (print or download) and royalty-free use and disposal of rights to compilations of the Work and these compilations.
4. The Author grants the Publisher permission to send metadata files related to the Work, including to commercial and non-commercial journal-indexing databases.
5. The Author represents that, on the basis of the license granted in the present Agreement, the Publisher is entitled and obliged to:
5.1. allow third parties to obtain further licenses (sublicenses) to the Work and to other materials, including derivatives thereof or compilations made, based on or including the Work, whereas the provisions of such sub-licenses will be the same as with the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons sub-license or another language version of this license, or any later version of this license published by Creative Commons;
5.2. make the Work available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, without any technological constraints;
5.3. appropriately inform members of the public to whom the Work is to be made available about sublicenses in such a way as to ensure that all parties are properly informed (appropriate informing messages).
6. Because of the royalty-free provision of services of the Author (resulting from the scope of obligations stipulated in the present Agreement), the Author shall not be entitled to any author’s fee due and payable on the part of the Publisher (no fee or royalty is payable by the Publisher to the Author).
7.1. In the case of third party claims or actions for indemnity against the Publisher owing to any infractions related to any form of infringement of intellectual property rights protection, including copyright infringements, the Author is obliged to take all possible measures necessary to protect against these claims and, when as a result of legal action, the Publisher, or any third party licensed by the Publisher to use the Work, will have to abandon using the Work in its entirety or in part or, following a court ruling in a legal challenge, to pay damages to a third party, whatever the legal basis
7.2. The Author will immediately inform the Publisher about any damage claims related to intellectual property infringements, including the author’s proprietary rights pertaining to a copyrighted work, filed against the Author. of liability, the Author is obliged to redress the damage resulting from claims made by third party, including costs and expenditures incurred in the process.
7.3. To all matters not settled herein provisions of the Polish Civil Code and the Polish Copyright and Related Rights Act shall apply.