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    Does the effect of enjoyment outweigh that of anxiety in foreign language performance?

    Dewaele, Jean-Marc and Alfawzan, M. (2018) Does the effect of enjoyment outweigh that of anxiety in foreign language performance? Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching 8 (1), pp. 21-45. ISSN 2083-5205.

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    Abstract

    Interest in the effect of positive and negative emotions in foreign language acquisition has soared recently because of the positive psychology movement (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014, 2016; MacIntyre, Gregersen & Mercer, 2016). No work so far has been carried out on the differential effect of positive and negative emotions on foreign language performance. The current study investigates the effect of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) on foreign language performance in a group of 189 foreign language pupils in two London secondary schools and a group of 152 Saudi English as a foreign language learners and users of English in Saudi Arabia. Correlation analyses showed that the positive effect of FLE on performance was stronger than the negative effect of FLCA. In other words, FLE seems to matter slightly more than FLCA in foreign language (FL) performance. Qualitative material collected from the Saudi participants shed light on the causes of FLCA and FLE and how these shaped participants’ decisions to pursue or abandon the study of the FL.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): foreign language anxiety, foreign language enjoyment, individual differences, learner-internal variables, teacher-centered variables
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
    Depositing User: Jean-Marc Dewaele
    Date Deposited: 12 Dec 2018 19:55
    Last Modified: 09 Aug 2023 12:45
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/25474

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