Does the effect of enjoyment outweigh that of anxiety in foreign language performance

By Jean–Marc Dewaele, M. Alfawzan. 2018

401 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Interest in the effect of positive and negative emotions in foreign language acquisition has soared recently because of the positive psychology movement (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014, 2016; MacIntyre, Gregersen & Mercer, 2016). No work so far has been carried out on the differential effect of positive and negative emotions on foreign language performance. The current study investigates the effect of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) on foreign language performance in a group of 189 foreign language pupils in two London secondary schools and a group of 152 Saudi English as a foreign language learners and users of English in Saudi Arabia. Correlation analyses showed that the positive effect of FLE on performance was stronger than the negative effect of FLCA. In other words, FLE seems to matter slightly more than FLCA in foreign language (FL) performance. Qualitative material collected from the Saudi participants shed light on the causes of FLCA and FLE and how these shaped participants’ decisions to pursue or abandon the study of the FL.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Language and Linguistics, Literature and Literary Theory

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/04a1e5798592aab6e38a10f5082d0209c33c9729

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

1. Somayeh Tahmouresi
2. M. Pawlak
3. Mostafa Papi

In Language and Linguistics

1. Somayeh Tahmouresi
2. M. Pawlak
3. Mostafa Papi
4. Y. Teimouri
5. Ali H. Al-Hoorie
6. Mariusz Kruk
7. E. Abdollahzadeh
8. D. Lasagabaster

In Literature and Literary Theory

1. Somayeh Tahmouresi
2. M. Pawlak
3. Mostafa Papi
4. Y. Teimouri
5. Mariusz Kruk
6. D. Lasagabaster
7. Ali H. Al-Hoorie
8. Jakub Bielak

Citations in the corpus

• A longitudinal study of foreign language anxiety and enjoyment (2021, neutral): “Previous studies have found that FLE and FLA are associated with language learning outcomes (e.g. Dewaele & Alfawzan, 2018; Saito et al., 2018).”
• Investigating language learning strategies: Prospects, pitfalls and challenges (2019, background): “…in many areas of SLA research in order to, for example, tap into facets of L2 motivational self system (e.g. Al-Hoorie, 2018), determine personality traits or measure emotional intelligence (e.g. Ożańska-Ponikwia, 2018), or establish levels of enjoyment and anxiety (e.g. Dewaele & Alfawzan, 2018).”
• Future selves, enjoyment and anxiety as predictors of L2 writing achievement (2021, background): “Although the significance of positive emotions in L2 learning is gaining momentum (e.g., Dewaele & Dewaele, 2017; Dewaele & Alfawzan, 2018; Khajavy et al., 2018) and there are studies that highlight the role of ideal L2 selves as the potential sources of L2 enjoyment (e.g., Papi & Khajavy, 2021;…”