Enjoyment and anxiety in second language communication: An idiodynamic approach
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 27 March 2018
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan in Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching
- Vol. 8 (1), 149-170
- https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2018.8.1.7
Abstract
Emotions are a fleeting experience, sometimes lasting only moments before dissipating. Prior research in SLA has either ignored emotions, underestimated their relevance, or has studied them as a relatively stable individual difference variable. In contrast, the present study takes an idiodynamic approach to examine the rapidly changing relationship between enjoyment and anxiety in second language communication, on a moment-to-moment timescale. University students who speak French as a second language were recruited to complete oral tasks in their second language. Participants then rated their per-second fluctuations in each emotion while watching a video recording of their tasks. Immediately after this, they were interviewed about their attributions for fluctuations in their ratings. We found that the relationship between enjoyment and anxiety is highly dynamic, resulting in varying patterns of correlation ranging from negative to positive. Triangulation of ratings of anxiety and enjoyment with interview data produces a richer understanding of the role of emotions in second language communication.Keywords
This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- The link between foreign language classroom anxiety and psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism among adult Bi‐ and multilingualsThe Modern Language Journal, 2013
- Positive Emotions Broaden and BuildAdvances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2013
- The Idiodynamic Method: A Closer Look at the Dynamics of Communication TraitsCommunication Research Reports, 2012
- A Dynamic System Approach to Willingness to Communicate: Developing an Idiodynamic Method to Capture Rapidly Changing AffectApplied Linguistics, 2010
- Assessment of Emotions: Anxiety, Anger, Depression, and CuriosityApplied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 2009
- The New Person-Specific Paradigm in PsychologyCurrent Directions in Psychological Science, 2009
- Feedback, Noticing and Instructed Second Language LearningApplied Linguistics, 2006
- The broaden–and–build theory of positive emotionsPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2004
- Positive psychology: An introduction.American Psychologist, 2000
- Four systems for emotion activation: Cognitive and noncognitive processes.Psychological Review, 1993