Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching· 2012Q1
Emotions that facilitate language learning: The positive-broadening power of the imagination
- 797citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2012year
Short summary
Positive emotions, activated by imagining future language success, broaden learners' perspectives, making them more receptive to new language input, unlike negative emotions which narrow focus.
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Key points
- Imagining future language success activates positive emotions that are key to motivation.
- Positive emotions broaden a learner's perspective, facilitating language absorption.
- Negative emotions, in contrast, narrow focus and restrict potential language input.
- A framework is proposed to balance broadening and narrowing emotional effects in language learning.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
The imagination is powerful, in part, because of the emotions that can be activated by imagining future states. Imagined future states are a key feature of the L2 self-system proposed by Dƅrnyei, and emotion may be the key to the motivational quality of the imagined future self. In particular, this paper focuses on positive anticipated and anticipatory emotions related to language learning. It is argued that, in general, positive emotion has a different function from negative emotion; they are not opposite ends of the same spectrum. Based on the work of Fredrickson, we argue that positive emotion facilitates the building of resources because positive emotion tends to broaden a person’s perspective, opening the individual to absorb the language. In contrast, negative emotion produces the opposite tendency, a narrowing of focus and a restriction of the range of potential language input. This article draws a framework for finding a balance between the positivebroadening and negative-narrowing emotions in the language classroom, and beyond. The emotion system is an engine for the positive-broadening power of the imagination.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2012 · DOI ↗
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Field: Language and Linguistics
Language and LinguisticsArts and Humanities