Linda Doleží is a language teacher and teacher trainer. She works as an Assistant Professor at Masaryk University Language Centre. She focuses on teaching methodology, language acquisition and psycho- and neurolinguistics in multilingual contexts. Her current interests include language attrition phenomena and the role of emotions and trauma in language acquisition and maintenance.

 

Introduction

When I first came across Aneta Pavlenko’s (2012) terms “disembodied cognition” and “decontextualized classrooms” I believed they could explain why some of us tend to forget languages that we learn at school. We spend so many hours in the classroom learning something that after leaving the school environment seems almost forgotten and inaccessible. It might be the lack of the affective component (i.e., emotions) and artificial context that cause this disconnect. Thus what we learn stays only on the surface and does not become “part of us”. In her persuasive study on mother tongue attrition, Schmid (2019) shows that the “use it or lose it rule” sometimes does not sufficiently explain the language attrition phenomenon in multilinguals and also turns her attention to emotions (Schmid, 2002). In my article I would like to pay attention to emotions and see what role they might play in learning a second or foreign language and whether we should prefer some types of emotions (i.e., positive ones) over others (i.e., negative ones).

 

Focus

Whatever we do, we prefer to feel positive emotions such as joy. This also counts for language learning. It is apparent that joy has a positive impact on language learning because joy itself is a positive feature of our lives and in a way it has a positive impact on everything. A very useful overview analyzing the impact of positive emotions on foreign language learning in the context of Czech learners of a foreign language (German) is provided by Benešová (2008, pp. 22−24). The author concludes that positive emotions have a great impact on cognition in general and on memory in particular. Positively perceived material will be remembered and retrieved from the memory more easily than material associated with negative emotions. Wang et al. (2021, pp. 3−4) offer an overview of areas joy may have a positive impact on, such as engagement in the language learning process, greater academic achievement and motivation. Joy is definitely more pleasant than fear or anxiety. It is defined by most dictionaries as great happiness and pleasure.

Surprisingly, as far as my teaching practice and research agenda are concerned, I have mainly focused on articles where negative emotions seemed to stand at the forefront. I first came across the role of negative emotions in the area of language attrition and Monika S. Schmid’s (2002) study on the influence of various factors on language attrition in Holocaust survivors. The degree of language attrition corresponds, according to the author, to the degree of persecution and negative emotions connected to the language with which the persecution is associated. This particular study helped me understand that emotions are indeed important and that they deserve more attention. It is also apparent that positive emotions, on the other hand, may keep language alive and prevent it from being lost (Doleží, 2020).

Concerning the area of foreign language learning and teaching, I again focused on and profited from studies dealing with trauma and negative emotions, in particular fear and anxiety (foreign language classroom fear and anxiety, FLCA) as I have been working with refugees and needed to understand the possible obstacles that might hinder their acquisition of Czech as a foreign language. Stimulating joy among this target group can be challenging and is often hindered by past trauma. 

My personal professional focus goes hand in hand with what Wang et al. (2021) say about the general and greater focus on negative emotions in second or foreign language learning, teaching and research. The impact of negative emotions as opposed to the effect of positive ones mentioned above is usually connected to difficulties in language learning, cognitive deficits, and memory problems. Interestingly, Dewaele and Pavlenko’s (2001-2003, p. 229) web-questionnaire focusing on bilingual (multilingual) speakers’ relation to emotions asks “How anxious are you when speaking your different languages with different people in different situations?” (question 25) but not “How joyful are you when speaking your different languages with different people in different situations?” As if anxiety was the default state humans (both teachers and students) happen to be in. But is that true? 

 

Foreign language enjoyment

As mentioned above, the first term I became acquainted with when trying to understand the role of emotions in my teaching practice was foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA). Only recently did I encounter a term covering emotions from the other end of the emotional scale—foreign language enjoyment (FLE). Wang et al. (2021) discuss enjoyment as one of the seven instances of positive psychology variables or factors including academic engagement, emotion regulation, grit, loving pedagogy, resilience, and well-being. According to the authors, the concept of FLE was introduced by MacIntyre and Gregersen (2012), so it is in fact a relatively new term. Dewaele (2015, p. 14) analyzes the role of positive and negative emotions and reports on a study by Dewaele and MacIntyre (2014) investigating the relationship between FLE and FLCA among 1,746 foreign language learners. According to the results, the amount of FLE was higher than FLCA. Furthermore, the more experienced the students were, the more joy they declared, and thus, according to the author, it is “crucial not to give up”. 

 

Emotional support

Learners need to believe that their emotions are changing and that negative ones will be soon transformed into positive ones, optimally into pure joy. Learners should also try to understand what they find positive and what they find negative in their learning and try to support and develop activities and strategies that bring them joy. As guides on this journey, teachers play a central role. Wang et al. (2021, p. 3) summarize the key factors investigated by Dewaele et al. (2019), which include emotional support, use of humor, level of friendliness, respect toward students, tone of voice, and positive mood. All these factors apparently contribute strongly to students’ FLE. Nevertheless, the point is that the labels “positive” and “negative” carry very individualized contexts and are very much influenced by our cultural and personal backgrounds. To really understand our students and to discover what makes them happy we need to get to know them well, and to be able to get to know anything or anyone well we need to be good observers, increase our sensitivity, open our minds and hearts, and devote ourselves to some serious and critical introspection. Grant and Sleeter (2007) include the last strategy as one of the keystones of becoming a fantastic teacher. Thus, the role of the teacher is not only the role of the expert but also the role of an experienced observer and interpreter of human souls. 

 

Conclusion

Emotions are important. Joy does apparently have a positive impact on language learning and, as opposed to negative emotions such as anxiety and fear, does not seem to inhibit language learning. Nevertheless, it is not easy to understand what constitutes joy for students and teachers during the learning and teaching process. Does it mean we should fully eliminate negative emotions from our classes? Not really. Our classes should resemble real life and be as authentic as possible. Thus, even negative emotions have their place in our classroom practice and in our lives.

Pavlenko (2005, p. 33) summarizes research on foreign language anxiety and reminds us that besides the debilitating anxiety that forces the learner to engage in escapist strategies we also encounter facilitating anxiety that makes the learner “fight” and deal with problems. Thus, negative emotions may be better than no emotions or indifference. Dewaele (2015, p. 14) says that “it is undoubtedly easier for curriculum designers and teachers to focus on rigid learning activities that require little emotional investment and therefore little potential for unpredictability, outbursts, surprise, risk-taking, embarrassment, anxiety ... and enjoyment.” But we teachers should not be afraid of emotions, especially enjoyment. We need to identify it and magnify it through whatever role we play in the foreign language learning process. Cummins (2022) defines teachers as “knowledge-generators” when describing their role as the providers of insight for researchers and other subjects shaping language policy. I would like to borrow and modify this term and hope that teachers will more and more play the role of “joy-generators” within the area of foreign language learning.

 

References

Benešová, P. (2008): Role emocí při kreativním psaní v cizojazyčné výuce. /The Role of Emotions in Foreign Language Creative Writing Teaching/. Ph.D. thesis, MU Brno.

Cummins, J. (2021): Evaluating theoretical constructs underlying plurilingual pedagogies. The role of teachers as knowledge-generators and agents of language policy. In: Piccardo, E. et al. (eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Plurilingual Language Education. Routledge, New York. 112−129.

Dewaele, J. M. et al. (2019): The effect of perception of teacher characteristics on Spanish EFL learners' anxiety and enjoyment. Modern Languages Journal, 103, 412−427. 

Dewaele, J. M. (2015): On emotions in foreign language learning and use. The Language Teacher, 39(3). 13−15.

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, 237−264.

Doleží, L. (2020): L2 English as a Backup for L3 Czech. CASALC Review. Česká a slovenská asociace učitelů jazykových center na vysokých školách, 10(2), 15−24.

Grant, C. A., Sleeter, Ch. E. (2007): Doing Multicultural Education for Achievement and Equity. Routledge, New York.

MacIntyre, P., Gregersen, T. (2012): Emotions that facilitate language learning: the positive-broadening power of imagination. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2. 193−213.

Wang, Y., Derakhshan, A., Jun Zhang, L. (2021):  Researching and Practicing Positive Psychology in Second/Foreign Language Learning and Teaching: The Past, Current Status and Future Directions. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. 1−10.

Pavlenko, A. (2012): Affective processing in bilingual speakers: Disembodied cognition? International Journal of Psychology, 47(6), 405−428.

Pavlenko, A. (2005): Emotions and Multilingualism. CUP, Cambridge.

Schmid, M. S. (2019): Frequency and recency – the impact of amount of use and length of residence on L1 attrition. In Monika S. Schmid & Barbara Köpke (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Language Attrition. 288−303. OUP, Oxford.

Schmid, M. S. (2002): First Language Attrition, Use and Maintenance: The Case of German Jews in Aglophone Countries. John Benjamins, Amsterdam. 

 

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