The Motion of Emotion: Idiodynamic Case Studies of Learners' Foreign Language Anxiety

Abstract

Language learning is an emotionally and psychologically dynamic process that is influenced by a myriad of ever-changing variables and emotional "vibes" that produce moment-by-moment fluctuations in learners' adaptation. This individual-level study triangulates physiological, idiodynamic, interview, and self-report survey data of three high and three low anxiety language learners to examine their language anxiety, its triggers, and the interpretations of rapidly changing affective reactions over a short period of time. Participants were videorecorded giving a presentation, while wearing heart monitors, in their Spanish as a Foreign Language class. Using the idiodynamic method, participants self-rated their moment-by-moment anxiety 42 times over three and a half minutes and later explained their reactions in an interview. The strong relationship observed among the various converging data sources demonstrates the strength of considering language learners on an individual level using triangulated quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study generated pedagogical implications for dealing with both positive and negative emotions, facilitating the reinterpretation of physiological cues, planning "escape routes" that allow participants to remain active in communication exchanges, and invoking the positive power of preparation, planning, and rehearsal.Keywords: affect; anxiety; learner variables; idiodynamic; emotion THE ANCIENT PALIMPSEST, A PARCHMENT or manuscript originally used during the Middle Ages, offers a present-day metaphor for visualizing the dynamics of rapidly changing emotional states of language learners. Palimpsests contained an original text upon which later writing was superimposed and which over time reappeared, thus creating a multilayered record of competing and infiltrating content. The resultant document was composed of the unintended existence of texts from the past and the possibility of future inscriptions. The metaphor suggests that the palimpsest projects an endless succession of brief intervals where the past is recalled and refracted by the momentary lens of the now.The language learning process produces its own palimpsests, as a new language is layered over an older one, as new identities find their form,

English as a Foreign Language Learners’ Anxiety and Interlocutors’ Status and Familiarity: An Idiodynamic Perspective

“…Even the same speaker might experience a new threat leading to anxiety in every single interaction and, to be more specific, in every second of that interaction. Since state anxiety occurs in the moment, postulating that low anxious speakers of a foreign language like English experience anxiety during their interactions and highly anxious speakers enjoy and relax in some moments of their interactions is not impossible (Gregersen et al, 2014) because every single element can affect the process of their interactions. From an ecological perspective, referring to the relationship of any specific organism with all other organisms which it comes into contact with (Arndt & Janney, 1983), we might say that all the issues EFL speakers face during the process of their interaction within classroom ecology might have their own unique effects on the interactional process of these speakers (Van Lier, 2004;Larsen-Freeman, 2016).…”

“…In 2014, Gregersen et al (2014) contended that changes in moments are caused by the strength of the impulse and the dynamic forces moving into a positive or a negative direction. However, sometimes even the slightest change may produce a knock-on marked effect called the butterfly effect.…”

Chinese University EFL Learners’ Foreign Language Writing Anxiety: Pattern, Effect and Causes

“…Meanwhile, as more research on FL anxiety has been done, more researchers come to realize that FL anxiety often interacts with a multitude of other variables during the complex process of SL/FL learning, which has resulted in numerous studies on the interaction of FL anxiety and other variables in SL/FL learning such as age, gender, year of study, motivation and strategy use (Chu, 2008;Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014;Gregersen, Meza, & MacIntyre, 2014;Liu, 2006Lu & Liu, 2011;Pichette, 2009;Shao et al, 2013). For example, Chu (2008) examined the interrelationship among shyness, L2 learning strategy use, L2 learning motivation, foreign language anxiety, and willingness to communicate.…”

Intentionality and Complex Systems Theory: A New Direction for Language Learning Psychology

“…The latter approach is beginning to happen in language learning psychology, including, e.g. work on learner agency and self-concept (Mercer, 2011(Mercer, , 2012, language learning motivation (Dörnyei, 2014;Dörnyei, MacIntyre, & Henry, 2015;King, 2011), willingness to communicate (MacIntyre & Legatto, 2011), and language anxiety (Gregersen, MacIntyre, & Meza, 2014;MacIntyre & Gregersen, 2012). The present exploration of the combined potential of intentionality and CST is similarly an attempt to develop domain-specific theory within the field of language learning psychology.…”