Abstract
As the most studied affective variable within foreign language education, the emotion of anxiety continues to generate significant research interest. Owing to technological developments in wearable research devices, new opportunities have arisen to expand the research methodologies used in the recording and assessment of foreign language education anxiety. This article contends that foreign language education research has over-emphasized the experiential component of emotion while neglecting the behavioural and physiological components. Attention is first given to the emergence of emotion as a significant focal point in foreign language education. The position of anxiety as an affective variable in foreign language education is then documented along with the methodological limitations of experiential measures. The article then highlights technological innovations in physiological data measurement and analysis in the form of the Empatica E4 wristband and the recent development of the Situation Specific Arousal Analyzer (SSAA) application. The article demonstrates how foreign language education anxiety researchers can use the Empatica E4 and SSAA to document autonomic nervous system arousal in real-time communication situations using high-integrity metrics such as Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Electrodermal Activity (EDA) under a range of tailored conditions. The article ends with a call to foreign language education anxiety researchers to extend their methodological repertoire beyond experiential self-report measures and to consider the opportunities afforded by physiological data capture and analysis technologies.
Highlights
Almost two decades prior an article was published entitled “predicting autonomic reactivity to public speaking: don’t get fixed on self-report data!” (Schwerdtfeger, 2004) in which the author cautioned that self-report measures of emotionality often fail to align with autonomic reactivity assessments
The current situation and methodological lag can be likened to police assessments of driving under the influence of alcohol which are no longer informed by the experiential selfreports of the driver, but through the technological affordances provided in the form of an administrable breathalyzer device
To most readers it perhaps seems unimaginable to think of a contemporary police service which would be reliant upon the experiential selfreports of the driver rather than combining such narratives with the more robust physiological assessments provided by technological innovation
Summary
Almost two decades prior an article was published entitled “predicting autonomic reactivity to public speaking: don’t get fixed on self-report data!” (Schwerdtfeger, 2004) in which the author cautioned that self-report measures of emotionality often fail to align with autonomic reactivity assessments. This trend is evident in foreign language education research wherein the experiential components of emotion (self-reports, interviews, narratives) have been emphasized while the behavioural (speech characteristics, facial expressions, gestures, movements) and, to a much greater extent, the physiological components (autonomic nervous system arousal) have been marginalized. This article draws attention to the research methodologies used to isolate, capture, define and analyze anxiety within foreign language education.
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