Emotional Processes of Foreign-Language Learning Situated in Real-Time Teacher Support

Abstract

The dynamic turn in the field of psychology of foreign-language learning has inspired researchers to capture the nitty-gritty dynamics of development in inter-or intraindividual variables. Despite the growing number of techniques for analyzing dynamics, there is still a need for techniques that capture how intraindividual dynamics are situated in a changing context. One of the techniques that can contribute to this knowledge is a clustering technique called Kohonen's Self-Organizing Maps (SOM). In this study, we aimed to explore the intraindividual process of foreign-language enjoyment and foreign-language classroom anxiety in alignment with teachers' level of emotional support during teacher-student interactions for two dyads. The findings indicated the emergence of recurring patterns of teacher support, and student anxiety and enjoyment. These patterns highlight the self-organizing nature of these teacher-student interactions, the bidirectional nature of this process, and, in general, the notion of teachers and students as dynamic systems. Moreover, the specific nature of the emergent patterns suggests that the traditional positive association between teacher support and student affect may (mostly, but not always) be generalized to real-time and real-life processes. And finally, our results point toward the importance of the student in determining the affective nature of the interactions from moment to moment.

A Longitudinal Study of Foreign Language Enjoyment and L2 Grit: A Latent Growth Curve Modeling

“…With a focus on continuous system change and interconnectedness, several studies have shown that FLE is complex, dynamic, and multifaceted (Dewaele and Dewaele, 2017;Elahi Shirvan and Talebzadeh, 2018b;Pavelescu and Petrić, 2018;. Following this dynamic perspective, some studies have investigated FLE from a person-centered approach, called idiographic approach (Elahi Shirvan and Talebzadeh, 2018a; and from a variable-centered approach, also called nomothetic perspective (Dewaele and Dewaele, 2017;De Ruiter et al, 2019) while some used a mixed methods approach (Dewaele and MacIntyre, 2019).…”

The Relationship Between Chinese English Major Students' Learning Anxiety and Enjoyment in an English Language Classroom: A Positive Psychology Perspective

“…The relationship was stronger in the group with a higher level of achievement and weaker in the group with a lower level of achievement. An analysis of the qualitative data revealed that low scores in English tests and fear of teacher criticism were major sources of FLCA; on the other hand, good test results, teacher praise, teacher support and increased social standing in the group were the main sources of FLE (De Ruiter et al, 2019). Jiang and Dewaele (2019) investigated the uniqueness of the emotions that Chinese foreign language learners experience in the classroom and how cultural factors, such as the role of the teacher in the Chinese educational context, could shape the manner in which interactions between the learner-internal and learner-external variables impacted FLE and FLCA.…”

The Dynamics of Foreign Language Enjoyment: An Ecological Momentary Assessment

“…The dominance of cross-sectional studies in the field reveals the need for more longitudinal designs and real-time exploration of FLE so as to make more comprehensive conclusions (Dewaele et al, 2019a). Furthermore, the new research directions that have appeared in the last few years have made it essential to evaluate the intrapersonal changes of students' emotions as they actually emerge to better understand the dynamics and nuances of the complex nature of FLE system (De Ruiter et al, 2019). A salient property of this complex system is the momentary changes to L2 learner's systems in situ.…”

“…Recent FLE research has thus been influenced by and enriched with the emerging research methods in DST (for a review of these methods see Hiver and Al-Hoorie, 2019 ). That is, via these methods, several studies have attempted to explore the dynamic aspects of FLE (e.g., Dewaele and Dewaele, 2017 , 2020 ; Boudreau et al, 2018 ; Elahi Shirvan and Taherian, 2018 ; Elahi Shirvan and Talebzadeh, 2018a , b , 2020 ; De Ruiter et al, 2019 ; Talebzadeh et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Recently, De Ruiter et al (2019) used Kohonen’s Self-Organizing technique to investigate the intra-individual FLE and FLCA process along with teachers’ degree of emotional support within the interactions of a teacher and two of his students in two pairs. This research revealed recurrent signs of teacher support as well as student anxiety and enjoyment.…”