Abstract
This study adopted a positive psychology perspective to investigate positive emotion and foreign language enjoyment among Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners in an emergency remote teaching (ERT) context amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A set of 90 preparatory Chinese language students (40 males and 50 females) was assessed for their level of foreign language enjoyment using the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (FLES). Participles' scores on self-perceived language achievement and actual test scores were adopted as the measurement of their Chinese language proficiency. The results revealed that: (1) CSL learners experienced high level of FL enjoyment in an online learning context, (2) no significant correlation was found between FLE and leaners' actual language achievement nor between FLE and their self-perceived achievement, (3) female learners showed higher FLE than male learners and gender was found to have a significant effect on FLE-Private, (4) participants' geological location, i.e., whether in China or at home countries, significantly influenced their FLE, (5) participants' regional group was not a significant predictor of FLE, and (6) teacher-related variables and learner self-perceptions of achievement were strong predictors of FLE among CSL learners. The findings highlight the importance of teacher's role in an online learning environment and suggest that FLE may not boost performance in the short term for language beginners but is still conducive in the long run. Implications for both teachers and learners, and suggestions for future researches are provided.
Highlights
Positive psychology (PP) is the empirical study of how people thrive and flourish, with the aim to help people lead better lives and catalyze building positive qualities in life rather than focus solely on repairing the worst things (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; MacIntyre and Mercer, 2014)
Starting from the perspectives of positive psychology, positive emotion and foreign language enjoyment with participants who were learning Chinese as a second language, the present study aims to investigate and answer the following questions: (1) What are the levels of FLE for international CSL learners in an online learning context?
The present study examined positive emotion and foreign language enjoyment (FLE) among Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners attending virtual online classes in the emergency remote teaching (ERT) context amid the global COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
Positive psychology (PP) is the empirical study of how people thrive and flourish, with the aim to help people lead better lives and catalyze building positive qualities in life rather than focus solely on repairing the worst things (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; MacIntyre and Mercer, 2014). The advent of modern positive psychology can be traced back to the presidential address to the American Psychological Association in 1998 given by Martin Seligman who, as a leading advocate of PP, used his APA presidency to initiate a shift in psychology’s focus toward a more positive psychology (Seligman, 1999; Linley et al, 2006). Positive psychology contributes another perspective to psychology by studying what we can do to increase strengths and attributes such as resiliency, happiness, optimism and the like in the general population. Suggestions and recommendations have been springing concerning anxiety reduction, and the reducing of negative and unpleasant feelings to alleviate their disruptive influence, given the almost consistent negative correlation between anxiety and language learning (Young, 1991; Dewaele and MacIntyre, 2014; Gregersen and MacIntyre, 2014)
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