How unique is the foreign language classroom enjoyment and anxiety of Chinese EFL learners?

By Yan Jiang, Jean–Marc Dewaele. System (Linköping), 2019

481 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Recent research has shown that Chinese foreign language learners' classroom emotions stand out from learners in the rest of the world. The present mixed-method study investigated to what extent foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) of 564 Chinese undergraduate EFL learners are different from learners outside China. While mean levels of FLE and FLCA were found to differ, most of the patterns between FLE and FLCA and a range of learner-internal and teacher-related variables were comparable to those identified in previous research, except for Chinese students' dislike of unpredictable behaviour by the teacher. Participants reported similar levels of FLE but higher levels of FLCA compared to the international sample in Dewaele and MacIntyre (2014), which could be attributed to the Chinese educational context. Multiple regression analyses revealed that FLE was predicted more strongly by teacher-related variables while FLCA was mostly predicted by learner-internal variables, confirming earlier research outside China. Qualitative analysis of learners’ emotional experiences also revealed that FLE was more likely to have been triggered by the teacher while FLCA was more related to learners themselves. Pedagogical implications of the findings are provided for EFL teaching in Chinese universities.

Subfields: Language and Linguistics, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c6f381c02d4d0afd834785ef6f0d2c0e5a648b80

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Citations in the corpus

The relationship between second language competence and willingness to communicate: the moderating effect of foreign language anxiety (2020, background): “Furthermore, most of the research on Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ FLA and WTC has been conducted in FL classroom contexts (Jiang and Dewaele, 2019; Li, Jiang, and Dewaele, 2018; Liu, 2006, 2018; Liu and Jackson, 2008).”
Informal digital learning of English and L2 willingness to communicate: roles of emotions, gender, and educational stage (2021, methodology): “Markedly, L2 enjoyment has received much attention in exam-oriented EFL contexts, as it can o ﬀ er emotional and cognitive bene ﬁ ts to EFL learners (Jiang and Dewaele 2019; Li2019 ).”
Conceptualisation and measurement of foreign language learning burnout among Chinese EFL students (2021, background): “…and Barabadi 2018; Li, Huang, and Li 2020) and di ﬀ erent aspects constituting classroom environment (e.g. teacher characteristics including teacher predictability, strictness, support, friendliness and their FL use) (e.g. Jiang 2020; Jiang and Dewaele 2019; Khajavy, MacIntyre, and Barabadi 2018).”
Are foreign language learners’ enjoyment and anxiety specific to the teacher? An investigation into the dynamics of learners’ classroom emotions (2020, unknown): “This confirms previous research showing that variation in FLE is strongly related to the teacher (Dewaele et al., 2018, 2019; Jiang & Dewaele, 2020; Li et al., 2018, 2019), whereas FLCA is more strongly predicted by learner-internal variables (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2019).”
Teacher enthusiasm and students’ social-behavioral learning engagement: The mediating role of student enjoyment and boredom in Chinese EFL classes (2021, unknown): “Jiang and Dewaele (2019) reported similar findings.”
Motivation and Second Foreign Language Proficiency: The Mediating Role of Foreign Language Enjoyment (2020, background): “As Jiang and Dewaele (2019) [23] point out, FLE is most likely to be triggered by teachers, so we do need to encourage instructors to pay special attention to entertainment in the development of their pedagogical skills.”
The role of grit and classroom enjoyment in EFL learners’ willingness to communicate (2020, unknown): “Thus, in the current literature, positive (e.g. L2 enjoyment) and negative emotions (e.g. L2 anxiety) generally coexist, in ﬂ uencing L2 learners ’ emotional experiences (Dewaele 2019; Jiang and Dewaele 2019; Li and Xu 2019).”