How different are the relations between enjoyment, anxiety, attitudes/motivation and course marks in pupils’ Italian and English as foreign languages?

Jean-Marc Dewaele,Anna Lia Proietti Ergün

doi:10.22599/jesla.65

Abstract

The present study tests the implicit assumption in most SLA research that sources of individual differences in the single foreign language (FL), typically English, of a learner apply to all other FLs of that learner. We thus investigated whether the values and relationships between the same learners’ classroom emotions, attitudes and motivation in two different FLs, namely Italian and English, were identical and whether they had a similar effect on course marks in both languages. Participants were 110 Turkish pupils in an Italian immersion school in Istanbul, Turkey. A positive relationship was found between FL Enjoyment (FLE) across the FLs but no relationship existed between levels of FL Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) and attitudes/motivation in both FLs. Within-FL correlation analyses revealed that FLE and attitudes/motivation were positively correlated in both FLs. FLCA was negatively linked with FLE and with attitudes/motivation in both FLs. Multiple regression analyses showed that pupils with high FLCA had lower course marks in both FLs. Attitudes/motivation was a much stronger positive predictor of course marks in Italian than in English, where FLCA was the strongest (negative) predictor. FLE was not a significant predictor of course marks. We conclude that while broad similarities exist in the relationships between emotions, attitudes/motivation and course marks in the two FLs, it is unclear why the effect of attitudes/motivation on course marks was much stronger for the weaker FL, while FLCA was much stronger for the stronger FL. Differences could be linked to meso-level and macro-level differences between the FLs or to the effect of unseen mediating variables such as teaching style or assessment.

Highlights

In their overview of Positive Psychology (PP)-inspired research in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), Dewaele, Chen et al (2019) pointed out that PP brought a popular new perspective to research on learners’ foreignlanguage (FL) classrooms emotions
The step in the investigation was to learn whether FL Enjoyment (FLE), FL Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) and attitudes/motivation values were correlated across Italian and English
Pearson correlation analyses with Bonferroni correction (p < 0.016) suggest that this is the case for FLE (r = 0.356, p < 0.0001) and attitudes/motivation (r = 0.355, p < 0.0001) but not for Italian English Number of items

Summary

Introduction

In their overview of Positive Psychology (PP)-inspired research in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), Dewaele, Chen et al (2019) pointed out that PP brought a popular new perspective to research on learners’ foreignlanguage (FL) classrooms emotions. MacIntyre and Gregersen (2012) introduced PP, and Fredrickson’s (2006) Broaden and Build theory of positive emotion in the field of SLA. The basic idea is that positive emotions allow the building of personal resources because they broaden a person’s perspective, strengthen resilience and social bonds, neutralise lingering negative emotions, boost wellbeing and facilitate the absorption of new information. MacIntyre and Gregersen (2012) argue that this applies to the second-language (L2) classroom where the teacher needs to find a balance “between the positive-broadening and negative-narrowing emotions” Following research that has examined anxiety in two FLs

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