Emotionality and Second Language Writers: Expressing Fear through Narrative in Thai and in English

Abstract

Writing to express emotions can be a challenging task for second language (L2) writers, especially because it tends to be a process that is less addressed in language classrooms. This paper aims to expand thinking on L2 literacy and writing by exploring how L2 writers can express emotion (fear) through narratives both in their first language (L1) and second language (L2). With a small number of participants, the study reports that narrative writing can be helpful in creating venues for L2 writers to become aware of linguistic and cultural aspects of their first (Thai) and second (English) languages. By providing personally significant writing prompts, L2 writers can reflect on their personal experiences and gain understanding about themselves linguistically, culturally, and emotionally. The paper concludes with pedagogical suggestions for how writing teachers can introduce both positive and negative emotions in L2 classrooms.

Elephants in the Room: An “Affective Turn,” Or Just Feeling Our Way?

“…It has been explored in classroom and nonclassroom settings, in second and foreign language contexts, in face‐to‐face and online environments, in research with children and adults, with the L1 and L2/LX. This includes work that engages with emotion around the bi‐/multilingual lexicon and emotional expression (e.g., Dewaele, ; Pavlenko, ), L2 learner/user identity (e.g., Block, ), agency (e.g., Miller & Gkonou, ), narrative (e.g., Barkhuizen, ), teacher cognition (e.g., Borg, ), language assessment (e.g., McNamara & Roever, ), expressive writing (e.g., Chamcharatsri, ), and sociocognitive approaches (e.g., Atkinson et al., ), which attests to the myriad ways in which affective phenomena have continued to inform L2 research, directly and indirectly. We can also see attention to affective factors in our discussions around various kinds of corrective feedback in the classroom (e.g., Sheen, ) as well as in the many language‐teaching trends over the years, such as the Silent Way , Suggestopedia , Communicative Language Learning , and Neurolinguistic Programming .…”

Translation and translingual remixing: A young person developing as a writer

“…Furthermore, when analysing texts by successful second language authors, she found that written texts such as diary jottings, journals and memoires represented unique spaces for trying out new identities and potentially challenging dominant monolingual and monocultural ideologies (p. 326; see also Author & Colleague, 2016). These genres allow for the writer to express emotion, which is largely absent in pedagogies of classroom writing that mainly focus on academic writing (Chamcharatsri, 2013, p. 59). As shown in the analysis, Neda uses translation and translingual remixing to facilitate this expression of emotion.…”

Review of Primary School English Coursebooks in Terms of Creative Writing Activities

“…Students should be improved by carrying out activities related to different types of literature. While Chamcharatsri (2012Chamcharatsri ( , 2013 was performing creative writing activities involving different types of literature, he wanted to bring a different perspective on the use of the emotions of the writer and guide them in this regard. He stated that performing different types of creative writing activities enables participants to take different roles in terms of emotional expression.…”