The Crucial Role of Learner Emotions in the Foreign Language Class

About the talk

This lecture will discuss the emerging area of emotion research in foreign language teaching and acquisition triggered by the introduction of positive psychology (Dewaele et al., 2019). Recent emotion research goes beyond the traditional focus on foreign language anxiety to include new concepts such as foreign language enjoyment, peace of mind, and flow (Botes et al., 2022; Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014; Zhou et al., 2021). Recent studies have shown that teacher behaviour in the foreign language class shapes learners’ enjoyment, anxiety, and motivation (Dewaele, Saito & Halimi, 2022, 2023).

References

Botes, E., Dewaele, J.-M., & Greiff, S. (2022). Taking stock: A meta-analysis of the effects of Foreign Language Enjoyment. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 12(2), 205-232.

Dewaele, J.-M., Chen, X., Padilla, A.M., & Lake, J. (2019). The flowering of positive psychology in foreign language teaching and acquisition research. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2128.

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 Teaching, 4, 237-274.

Dewaele, J.-M., Saito, K., & Halimi, F. (2022). How teacher behaviour shapes foreign language learners’ enjoyment, anxiety and motivation: A mixed modelling longitudinal investigation. Language Teaching Research, https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688221089601

Dewaele, J.-M., Saito, K., & Halimi, F. (2023). How foreign language enjoyment acts as a buoy for sagging motivation: A longitudinal investigation. Applied Linguistics, 44(1), 22-45.

Zhou, L., Dewaele, J.-M., Lochtman, K., & Xi, Y. (2021). Foreign language peace of mind: a positive emotion drawn from the Chinese EFL learning context. Applied Linguistics Review, https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2021-0080

About the speaker

Jean-Marc Dewaele, emeritus Professor of Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism at Birkbeck, University of London, has published widely on individual differences in emotions in the foreign language classroom. He is former president of the International Association of Multilingualism and the European Second Language Association, and current president of the International Association for the Psychology of Language Learning. Dewaele is also general editor of the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. His work has been recognized by the Equality and Diversity Research Award from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (2013), the Robert Gardner Award for Excellence in Second Language and Bilingualism Research (2016) from the International Association of Language and Social Psychology. and the EUROSLA Distinguished Scholar Award (2022).