What role do emotions play in foreign language learning?

In his book, the applied linguist Richard J. Sampson discusses research on the role of emotions in foreign language learning. While researchers have mainly focused on negative emotions in the past, he argues that we also need to pay attention to the ways that positive emotions impact language learners. In recent years, researchers have shifted their methods and focus to positive psychology, promoting a nuanced look at the emotions experienced by language learners. Sampson’s study on 28 university students learning English in Japan explores precisely this.

How many of us have felt nervous before starting a conversation in a foreign language, but then get comfortable as the conversation goes on? Sometimes a supportive listener or a shared interest with our conversational partner can ease any initial tension or fear we feel. Sampson found that this also happened to many of the students he observed.

One of these students was Akito: a student who was initially quite nervous about giving a presentation about his favourite singer. For many researchers using a “wide-lens” approach to exploring emotions in the foreign language classroom, Akito’s initial hesitation would probably have been interpreted as anxiety in speaking English. However, Sampson’s observations of “small-lens” social interactions between students provide us a totally different picture: Akito’s classmates appreciated this singer and were happy to talk about him! This shared interest, and the support and empathy Akito gained from his classmates, helped him to abandon his initial fear.

In another case, a student named Kazuma tended to remain silent in English class. This fact could have easily been interpreted as fear or anxiety around English, but Sampson was able to gain a further understanding about Kazuma’s silence which provided a more nuanced explanation. By engaging in psychological reflection, Kazuma was able to identify elements of his personality which led him to believe he would not be good at speaking English. Once these were identified and he became aware of them, he became more confident in speaking English, transforming his negative associations into positive actions.

Motivation, transportable identities, personality and the social context in which a language is learned are some of the themes that Sampson addresses in this book. To better understand Akito, Kazuma, and the other students’ emotions, Sampson first applies a “wide-lens” look at the classroom context. Then, he focuses a “small-lens” on social interaction in English between the students, enabling him to understand both how the amotions manifest publicly as well as how students talk about them after the fact.

Thus, as Akito and Kazuma showed us, emotions around language learning can change over time – even over the course of a single interaction! Using a small-lens approach to reflect on the role of our emotions in language learning can yield insights that will be helpful throughout our journey into the foreign language.