RESEARCH PAPER
Researching the Relationship of Learner
Emotion to Language Learning:
Issues and Challenges
Nicole Gallagher, Toyo University
In this paper, I investigate the emotional dimension of language learning of students in a discussion class that
I taught at Rikkyo University in Tokyo. The Center for English Discussion Class at Rikkyo University provides its
first-year undergraduates with a weekly 90-minute English discussion course comprised of seven to nine students
per class. While instructing these discussion classes, I observed that students expressed a range of emotion andreacted differently within similar classroom circumstances. This led me to become increasingly curious about
how emotion interacts with the process of language learning. In particular, I wondered what we could learn about
language learning and teaching by attempting to interpret learner emotion in context. From these questions I developed this study to better understand how emotion affects the processes and outcomes of language learning.
This paper also examines the challenges and issues I faced when designing and interpreting a qualitative researchstudy on emotion in the classroom. In the paper, I first review previous and current understandings of emotion in
the SLA literature. Then, I document the development and process of this research project, which was primarily
conducted through student written reflections on in-class language learning in a weekly 90-minute language classover the period of one semester. Finally, I present interpretations of learner emotion as it relates to the student
experience of language learning in the classroom.
本稿では、立教大学英語ディスカッションクラスにおける、学生の言語学習に対する感情的側面について考察する。立教大学英語ディスカッションセンターでは、一年生を対象に一コマ90分のディスカッションクラスを週１回提供している。１クラス7˜9名で構成され、授業中、学生が様々な感情を表現し、同じクラス中でも学生一人ひとりが異なる反応を示した。筆者は、これらの反応を観察し、言語学習と感情の関連性について深く興味を持つようになった。特に、学習者の感情を理解することにより、感情がどのように言語学習の過程と結果に影響を与えるかということをより深く理解するために本研究を行った。本稿では、筆者が第二言語クラスにおける感情についての質的研究を行う
際の問題点を明らかにする。まず初めに、第二言語習得における感情についての先行研究を概観し、その後で学生が一学期間毎週記録した内省をもとに行った本プロジェクトについて記す。最後に、学生が言語学習を通して抱く感情について考察する。

Keywords
learner emotion, narratives, reflexivity, qualitative research

キーワード
学習者の感情、ナラテイブ、再帰性、質的研究

I

t seems quite intuitive that learning a second language involves our emotional selves Yet,
until quite recently, in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), emotions have often
been “the elephant in the room—poorly studied, poorly understood, seen as inferior to rational thought” (Swain, 2013, p. 205). While the role of emotional affect in language learning
is becoming increasingly recognized, emotion was an underrepresented area of research in
SLA in the past (Swain, 2013) At its beginnings, SLA made use of scholarship from linguistics
and psychology that positioned the field in a predominantly cognitive direction, with comparatively little regard for research done in other areas (Douglas Fir Group, 2016) In recent
years, SLA scholars and researchers (e g , Zemblyas, 2005; Benesch, 2012, 2017; Swain, 2013;
Douglas Fir Group, 2016) have attempted to rectify this theoretical and research gap in SLA
scholarship, drawing on interdisciplinary knowledge from the social sciences, or neuroscience Increasingly, calls are being made to further incorporate more research on emotion so
Learner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 20187

Researching the Relationship of Learner Emotion to Language Learning: Issues and Challenges

that second language learning can be better investigated across various contexts in which it
takes place (e g , Imai, 2010; Swain, 2013; Douglas Fir Group, 2016)
This case study examines how emotion may affect the processes and outcomes of language
learning in the classroom In addition, it explores the challenges that I faced when researching learner emotion in the classroom I begin by explaining how I became interested in the
topic of emotion in the language learning process, and the research questions I have chosen
for this study I then review some depictions of emotion that are characteristic of mainstream
scholarly literature in SLA—depictions that have been criticized for misapprehending how
emotion affects language learning (see Benesch, 2012; Swain, 2013). In addition, I outline other more recent theoretical understandings of emotion in SLA and describe how social theories
of emotions can illuminate the connections between emotional experience and identity andinvestment in second language learning While there remains some disagreement on theoretical approaches to emotions, research on emotion in SLA can be enriched through utilizing
understandings from multiple disciplines—insights from both recent neurocognitive research,and social theories of emotions that recognize how they are discursively constructed and interact within dynamic, multi-layered social contexts. I then move on to discuss the reflective
research approach that I took to investigate learner emotion in my own classroom Finally,
I examine and interpret the emotional expressions that were captured in the students’ own
written self-reflections, and interpret what these experiences can convey about the experiential side of language learning in the classroom I conclude with discussing some possible
limitations and review some of the study’s implications and points for future research

Thinking about Emotion in the Classroom
I became interested in the topic of learner emotion, and the classroom as a social space where
emotions are expressed, withheld or repressed, through my observations of how the students
in my classes each had their own personal and unique emotional reactions to a given task At
the time, I was teaching small seminars of English discussion for first-year Japanese undergraduate students in Tokyo After several semesters of teaching this course, I had noticed thatsome students were better able to cope with the learning demands of the class than others,
and I began to explore whether language learning outcomes of individual learners might beconnected to a learner’s emotional response (Gallagher, 2017) Any given individual learner’sability to handle the demands of interactive dialogue with others, and the discussion of difficult topics seemed at least partly contingent on elements such as emotional regulation andemotional awareness of others These observations led me to want to better understand thestudents’ perceptions of the class, and how they emotionally interpreted their own learningand involvement in the class The study that will be described below is guided by two central
concerns. First, how does emotion affect the processes and outcomes of language learning in
the classroom? Second, what are the challenges and issues the researcher faced when designing and interpreting a qualitative research study on emotion in the classroom?

Emotion in SLA and the Value of Qualitative Research
Until relatively recently, emotion had been poorly represented in mainstream SLA scholarship, which was comprised of research mostly conducted with quantitative models A classic
example of this is Krashen’s (1981) affective hypothesis, which only narrowly examined affect, and limited it to an appraisal of negative emotions like anxiety Krashen’s characterization of affect, and his cognitive tradition of research, arguably left a considerable legacy on
how emotion was conceptualized in SLA (Swain, 2013) This can be seen in the proliferationof narrowly defined terms to deal with affective experience, which Pavlenko describes as “a8Learner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 2018

Nicole Gallagher

laundry list of decontextualized and oftentimes poorly defined socio-psychological constructs,
such as attitudes, motivation, anxiety, self-esteem, empathy, risk-taking, and tolerance of
ambiguity” (Pavlenko, 2005, p 34) It had been pointed out by other researchers such as
Imai (2010) that these limited circumscriptions of affect cannot adequately capture the richness and diversity of emotional experience, and the potential consequences this experiential
dimension may have on language learning. Imai (2010) suggests that the influence of otheremotions on L2 learning, such as joy, enjoyment, jealousy, surprise, pride, guilt, disgust, andsadness, have not been well-understood or explored in SLA research
Despite this gap in research on emotion, there are few studies which describe how a rangeof emotional states affects language learning in the classroom (see Imai, 2010). In order tocapture a wider range of emotion and its effects on the learner and learning, utilizing qualitative research methods is invaluable. Specifically, learner-focused research that utilizes a
research methodology rich in description, such as narrative inquiry (see Barkhuizen, Benson,& Chik, 2014), could help to remedy this gap in research on emotion, and deepen our understanding of learners Through examining narrative accounts in context, researchers can begin
to depict more accurately a richer and more complex understanding of emotion, and describe
how these experiences might interact with the processes of language learning

Understanding Language Learning Through Emotion
The Douglas Fir Group describes language learning as “an emotionally driven process at
multiple levels of experience” (2016, p 36) As classroom researchers, there are several arguments for how inquiry into emotion can help to better understand language learning I will
focus on two arguments that pertain to my study in this paper. In this section, I will first describe how researching emotion might help researchers better understand the decision-making and cognition of learners Then I will discuss how such research can be used to explore
the emotional-social space of the classroom
Investigating emotion can inform us more intimately about learner cognition Swain (2013)
argues for a reappraisal of cognition in SLA that recognizes the centrality of emotion in all
cognitive processes Historically, emotion and cognition were deemed to be two separate,distinct processes—a legacy of Descartes, and the western philosophical traditions up throughthe Enlightenment (Damasio, 1994) Such traditional models of the mind that divide emotion
and cognition have come to be regarded as incorrect (Swain, 2013) Swain points to recent
research in neuroscience which suggests that emotions are “integral and inseparable” (2013,
p 193) aspects of cognition This is crucially linked with research on language learning because often researched cognitive processes such as “thinking, knowing, attending, processing
information, reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making” (p 196) are, in fact, conducted through a highly integrated emotional-cognitive brain Swain argues for research into
emotion through narratives where “the centrality of emotion and its connections to cognition
becomes evident” (ibid ) In this way, narratives can illuminate the intersections of emotion,
self-perception and decision-making for language learning researchers, for instance how
students may make decisions situated in particular emotional states Later in this paper, I
evaluate how emotion might connect to student cognition
Poststructuralist and social theories of emotion argue that emotion is a social phenomenon—culturally bound and constructed through language. Social perspectives on emotion canperhaps inform us about the complex dynamics in a classroom SLA researchers (Zemblyas,
2005; Norton, 2013) have taken up poststructuralist approaches to develop emotional descriptions of the classroom and the learner’s relationship to language learning and society Poststructuralism conceives of the individual within her relationship to the social world with lanLearner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 20189

Researching the Relationship of Learner Emotion to Language Learning: Issues and Challenges

guage playing a central role in the social construction of an individual’s identity and sense of
self (Norton, 2013) Drawing on the work of feminist scholar Christine Weedon (1997), Norton
describes how identities are constructed discursively: “language not only defines institutional practice but also serves to construct our sense of ourselves—our subjectivity” (2013, p 4)
Based on Foucauldian ideas of discourse and historical specificity, subjectivity is always “socially and historically embedded” (ibid ) In Zemblyas’s (2005) work on teacher emotion, he
describes how “genealogies” of emotion connect to a person’s identity and these “trajectories of emotional experiences are positioned and position teachers to know and feel in certain
ways” (p 98) Zemblyas’s description of teacher emotions in the classroom is useful in articulating how emotions can drive us to express or think in certain ways In other words, behavior can be partly dictated through our social histories and emotional memories of emotion In
addition, he interprets the social space of the classroom as an emotionally interacting space,
an unclear web of interactions and memories that may affect each individual differently.
Finally, Zemblyas describes classrooms as being dictated by emotional rules, rules that are established by a given institution, and that affect how an individual may experience a classroom(2005). While Zemblyas’s ideas about emotion in the classroom offer insight on how emotionfunctions between individuals, where learner and teacher emotion is located, expressed orwithheld, they also suggest the value of researching emotion in order to understand the social
context of the classroom By situating emotion within its varied social context, social factorsthat might be influencing language learning can be better examined by researchers looking at
individual classrooms

Background and My Approach to This Study
This study is guided by two central concerns. First, how does emotion affect the processes
and outcomes of language learning in the classroom? Second, what are the challenges andissues the researcher faced when designing and interpreting a qualitative research study on
emotion in the classroom? I will first outline details about the research context, and then I
will describe the particular approach I took in the study
The participants in this study are eight students who I taught in one section of a year-longfirst-year undergraduate course at Rikkyo University in Tokyo. Each of these students hadcompleted an average of six years of formal English training in junior and senior high schools
and obtained a TOEIC score between 280 and 480 by the start of the course In general, theundergraduate students at this level have had little experience taking English-speaking classes that require speaking in English for an extended period of time Therefore, the university
discussion course I taught would have been their first experience to participate in extended
pair and group discussions In these small 90-minute English discussion classes conductedentirely in English, all of the students are required to participate actively in English discussion Each class is organized around a predetermined discussion topic and a functional language point or communication skill, with the course emphasizing output and interaction to
encourage fluency and the development of pragmatic competence. The course has a unified
curriculum, and incorporates an in-house textbook and syllabus designed within the Center
for English Discussion Class at Rikkyo
As my main interest in this study is to investigate how emotion was affecting learning in
the classroom, I decided to conduct research on what my students were feeling during class
In the spirit of narrative inquiry, I wanted to investigate how students articulated their experiences in the classroom in their own emotional terms I did not want to impose a discussionof emotions from the outset at the risk of framing the discussion too narrowly, or separating it from its relevant context Considering what might be the most non-intrusive way to

10

Learner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 2018

Nicole Gallagher

learn about their emotional expression in class, I chose to use an in-class reflective writing
activity. I thought that having students write reflections provides an opportunity to examine
how learners were interpreting their own experiences of language learning in the classroom
I also thought that it could empower students by giving them a chance to express their own
thoughts on taking the discussion class However, one concern I had about asking students
to write reflection papers was that they might withhold how they feel for various reasons like
concern for their relationship to me as their teacher, or personal discomfort with expression
Ultimately, I realized that I could not predict how much students would disclose I could only
assume that some students might be more open than others and that writing reflections could
be a good way to also understand how open students would be emotionallyI have adopted a reflective approach to the evolution of the research process in an effort toremain responsive to the particular situation and needs of the learners in this study When I
started to plan this research study, it seemed necessary to be flexible and allow the design ofthe study to evolve as I gathered more information and experience with the class Miyahara(2016) describes this attitude of a researcher as reflexivity, an “ongoing self-awareness” (p.
90) that results in “greater sensitivity to subjectivities of both the researcher and the participant” (p 90) At the outset, I was not sure exactly how the students would respond to theirinvolvement in the research or what kind of data I would be able to collect As a result, I decided to establish an approach that would allow me to adapt the task in order to improve therichness of the data To this end, I kept a teaching journal throughout the semester and tried
to write down my observations and reflections after each class. Writing helped me to organize
my thoughts, and keep track of the changes that I observed in class with the students andtheir development For instance, I made notes on when would be a good time to assign thenext written reflection or how I might modify the writing prompt for a given class. Here is an
example from my journal:“The students are becoming more competent and confident in their discussion skills, soin the next class I should have them reflect on their own progress so far in the course”.
This self-reflection was a tool that kept me refining and reassessing the project as it unfolded, and helped me confirm to myself what was an appropriate and fair approach to theresearch with the students It became a concern of mine to ensure that the students were
engaged in meaningful reflection themselves. I also found opportunities to discuss my ideas
about the study with some of my peers. This also became an important part of the reflective
process that I went through during the study

The Study Design
Throughout a 14-week semester, students periodically wrote short written reflections on theirexperiences of conducting extended discussions in English Narrative inquiry, whether conducted through writing or interviews, is beneficial to understanding complex phenomena, andit provides us with a window into learners’ thoughts, emotions, and ideas (Barkhuizen et al ,2014). In addition, individual accounts of learner experience can illuminate how differently
individual learners might experience the same class The students would write for three minutes at the end of a given class and were provided with the option of writing in either English or Japanese. As the students were permitted to write in their L1, they had a freer rangeof expression and the capacity to articulate their thoughts, feelings, and strategies more fully
within the time constraints of the short activity. Furthermore, the students could reflect on
their own language development and performance immediately after the experience in classWritten narrative, more specifically, is an active site of development for and by the writer, it“organizes life—social relations, interpretations of the past, and plans for the future” (Daiute
Learner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 201811

Researching the Relationship of Learner Emotion to Language Learning: Issues and Challenges& Lightfoot, 2004, p. xi). Consequently, narrative as a classroom research methodology canalso be an empowering cultural practice, where learners are given the time and the personal
space to reflect and interpret their own experiences. Through writing their own reflections,learners can reflect on their developing L2 identities and potentially find ways or develop
strategies to become more deeply invested in their own learning Darvin and Norton emphasize that, “it is through desire and imagination that they are able to invest in practices that
can transform their lives” (2015, p 46) In this respect, using written narratives as a classactivity seemed to me to be a meaningful form of inquiry that could help both learners andteachers better understand and reflect on the emotional processes involved in language learning
In the beginning of the semester, I observed all 13 of my class groups and chose four groups
to pilot the writing activity during the third week of the course (the third time the class met)
Each of these classes had low-intermediate English proficiency. At the end of the last English
group discussion, the students had three minutes to reflect on the question prompt, “Whatare your reflections on today’s class?” After reviewing the student writings of each class, I
chose one class group with whom I would continue the reflective writing study. I thought
that, by narrowing down the study to one class, I could focus more closely on tailoring theclassroom component of the research activity more carefully to the particular circumstancesof that class
The class group that I chose had a strong rapport with one another, with a variety of personality types and a mix of genders in the class The openness of some of the members in
the group, along with the extreme shyness of one member, seemed particularly promising interms of the diversity of ideas they might express in their reflection papers. These personalities were part of what persuaded me to choose this particular class I was also particularlyinterested in how this activity could be useful for students who were using English to express their ideas in extended discussion for the first time, and so I selected lower intermediate classes to focus on. Very few students in the first-year course at the lower intermediatelevel have had the opportunity to discuss topics in their previous English language educationin Japanese high schools, or had experiences using English outside of the classroom. I wanted to see if the reflective writing activity could be a useful tool for students to process theirown thoughts and feelings about speaking English for an extended period of time for the firsttime, and whether it might benefit their investment in the language learning process in someway
While the students were aware that I read their reflections, this activity arguably provided amore personal space for students to express their thoughts and feelings about their progressin class They could explore their emotional experiences of the class in greater detail without fear of losing face in front of their peers As classrooms are perhaps shaped by emotionalrules (Zemblyas, 2005) that determine how and what students can express, a writing activity
seems to be a less restrictive practice for personal expression in the classroom While students
may not feel comfortable talking about themselves personally with their teacher or theirclassmates, writing gives them a less confrontational means of expression Finally, the scopeof the task was relatively unstructured, providing students with the choice to write about
what concerned or interested them—specific aspects on the course, their general developmentof English-speaking ability, or their own personal strengths, achievements, or perceived limitations Personalization could likely serve as a catalyst for students to set their own personalgoals, which are meaningful to them according to their own understandings of their needs
As I mentioned earlier, I determined when to use the activity during the semester througha process of observing the students and making notes in my journal from week to week, aswell as discussing the activity informally with several of my colleagues who teach the same

12

Learner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 2018

Nicole Gallaghercourse. By applying a flexible activity schedule and modifying the activity, I tried to maximize
the usefulness of the writing activity for the students, and gain a more diverse set of narrative
accounts about learner emotion

Results and Analysis
At the outset of this study, it was difficult to predict how the students would respond to theactivity and whether it would become an effective learning tool for the students. Dörnyei(2007) describes the nature of qualitative research as interpretive, emergent, and iterative
In that spirit, I refrained from making decisions about how I would approach the analysis of
the students’ written reflections in the initial stages of the study. I also wanted to interpretthe learners’ emotions in a context relevant to them, so I waited until I read the data before
determining a way to interpret them. In total, the students wrote their reflection responses in class six times over the 14-week semester After reading, transcribing, and translating
the students’ writing from Japanese into English, I noticed that students often described theemotions they experienced when trying to speak English and participating in the discussion
class. I also observed that some of the students’ written responses were more reflective thanothers, and some individual students seemed to write more and take a more reflective approach to the activity than others For instance, some students would describe something that
happened previously in order to understand something more clearly. Through this reflection,these students may be articulating some reasons for why something occurred, imagining
ways to improve themselves, or change some disagreeable state in the future
Table 1. Erii’s entries)
What are yourreflections on
today’s class?
(week 3)How do you feel
about your progress so far? (week
5)

1

i

ボキャブラリーが少なく、英語もなかなか出てこなくて話が詰まってしまうことが多いです。ディスカッション
は自分の意見を相手に伝わるように言わないといけないのでとても難しいです。
会話表現を知り、少し使
Since I know the function phrases, I was able to use
えるようになりました。
しかthem a little However, when I was nervous, mymind would go blank so I want to be able to always し、緊張すると真っ白になるので常に使えるようにした
use them
いです。

Since my vocabulary is small, it was often the casethat English would not come out and I would be
stuck for words To have a discussion, I have to
speak in order to express my opinion so it is very
difficult.

A pseudonym
Learner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 201813

Researching the Relationship of Learner Emotion to Language Learning: Issues and Challenges
理由と例の境が曖昧になってしまいとても難しかったです。また今回のトピックは
事前に意見を考えておかな
いとスムーズにディスカッシ
ョンが出来ないな。。。と思いました。意見をまとめる時
間をなるべく減らして途切れずにディスカッションができるようになればいいなと思いました。フレーズも長くなり、種類も増えたので、頑張って覚えてきちんと使えるよ
うにしたいです。
前回のディスカッションテ
How do you feelCompared to the last discussion test, this one wentス
トよりはスムーズに出来た
more smoothly The other group members helped
about today’sと思います。グループのメン
me a lot by following along with my ideas and rediscussion test?
sponding to what I said with reactions I would like バーがフォローをしたり、リア(week 9)クションをとってくれたのて
to be able to speak more fluently by using longer
とても助かりました。
長いフ
phrases, and stop using Japanese English.
レーズでも役に立つものがあるので日本語英語ではな
くもっと流暢に言えるようにしたいです。
自分の意見を言うことがHow do you feel
When compared to at first, I can now give my own
初期に比べるとできるように
about your ability opinion However, I often cannot think of the right
なったと思います。しかし、
to have a discus- words, or use the phrases that I had wanted to use
単語が出てこなかったり、次When I speak out, I will be careful not to forgetsion in English?
に使おうとしたフレーズを使
these things(week 12)えなかったりすることがよくあります。発言する時になると忘れてしまうので気をつけたいです。
ディスカッションクラスを
Do you feel com- Since taking discussion class, my listening ability
受講してから、
リスニング
fortable to speak has improved a little However, I have a small voの力が少しつきました。しcabulary, and since I cannot compose sentences inin English? Howかし、ボキャブラリーが少な
the moment, I cannot have a smooth conversation
does it compare
く、文の構成が瞬時にでき
to the beginning
ないことから、スムーズに
of the semester?
会話ができるようになりま(week 14)せん。

What are yourreflections on
today’s class?
(week 7)It’s very difficult to understand the unclear border
between reasons and examples As well, without
thinking about my ideas beforehand, I wouldn’t
have been able to have a smooth discussion withthis week’s topic It would be good if I could takeless time to put my ideas together and was able toparticipate in the discussion without pause The
phrases are getting longer and the type of phrases
are increasing, so I want to try my best to memorize them by heart so that I can use all of them in
discussion

In Table 1, you can see an example of Eri’s responses over the course of the semester, which
she had written originally in Japanese and was later translated into English. While very shy
in class, she was particularly reflective in her responses when compared to some of the otherstudents and she seemed to take it as an opportunity to think about what she would like tochange in the future Sometimes she would set goals for future improvement For instance,
in week 7, she reflects on her inability to say what she wants to say in the moment, and thensuggests a strategy to improve her involvement in the future:

14

Learner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 2018

Nicole Gallagher

It would be good if I could take less time to put my ideas together and was able to participate in the discussion without pause The phrases are getting longer and the typeof phrases are increasing, so I want to try my best to memorize them by heart so that
I can use all of them in discussion
On the other hand, some students would write things like “It was fun” or “It was difficult”,
but they did not elaborate why they felt those ways This seemed to suggest that they wereless engaged or invested in the writing activity
Since the main aim of this study is to better understand the emotional dimension of learning for these students, below I have analyzed the emotions the students described in theirwritten responses Before taking a thematic approach to categorizing the data of the study, I
read through all of the student responses, and isolated passages where students recalled theirexperiences of learning using emotionally descriptive language I then grouped the responses
into four general categories of emotion that I observed in the students’ writing: (a) momentsof anxiety and relief, (b) moments of dissatisfaction, (c) moments of optimism and pride, and(d) moments of enjoyment I chose the labels based on what seemed to best encapsulate theexperiences that the students described in their writing Within these more general categories, I also chronicle some other emotions that were depicted in the students’ experiences

Moments of Anxiety and Relief
It has long been noted in SLA literature that anxiety likely influences the processes of language learning (Imai, 2010) In this study, I noticed that the participants in the study often
described their anxiety as the first part of a two-phase process. They would often depict aphase of anxiety that is followed by a phase of relief For example, one student wrote “since
the number of phrases we are using has increased since the last test, I was anxious about
whether I could do well, but thankfully the discussion could go smoothly with the cooperationof the others around me” In this case, it seems it was easier for the student to express her
anxiety after her concerns had been alleviated, and the original situation had changed In another case, a student reported in week 14 about his anxiety at the beginning of the course: “At
first, the fact that I needed to speak English, made me very anxious, but over time, I got used
to speaking English ” In previous responses he had not explicitly discussed his anxiety Thissuggests that he became willing to discuss the worry only after it had dissipated This delay inacknowledging anxiety suggests that students may not always feel comfortable articulating or
expressing their emotions if it could make them feel vulnerable If students feel uncomfortable or anxious in class, they may withhold or repress this information

Moments of Dissatisfaction
Students sometimes articulated feelings of frustration in situations where they thought they
were unable to successfully participate in class discussion At the end of the semester, one
student acknowledged his dissatisfaction with the size of his vocabulary: “Certainly, it’s fun
to use English However, there were many times where I felt frustrated because I did not haveenough vocabulary to express myself ” As this was the last class, it is impossible to interpret
whether this feeling of frustration could have any effect, positive or negative, on his futurelearning In another situation, perhaps such frustration could lead to demotivation, or might
be a turning point to change tack for the learner, depending on how the student reflects orinterprets the situation This might suggest that coping strategies could be useful to navigate such negative emotions like frustration For instance, one student in particular (Eri from
Table 1) would often express dissatisfaction with her performance, and then respond to her
Learner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 201815

Researching the Relationship of Learner Emotion to Language Learning: Issues and Challenges

discomfort by establishing a goal or strategy to improve her performance or speaking ability
in the future: “…I often cannot think of the right words, or use the phrases that I had wanted
to use When I speak out, I will be careful not to forget these things ” It seems that, in somecases, isolating some negative performance could help these students make decisions about
how they might improve in the future As long as Eri remains invested in improving herself
when she notices something she is dissatisfied with, it seems her negative perceptions could
have some positive impact on her language learning success in the future In other words,
she used her negative self-perceptions to motivate herself to improve to what she imagined
would be a better behaviour or state In conclusion, these observations suggest that emotions
can affect, and may even inspire, learners’ decisions and plans for future language learning.

Moments of Optimism and Pride
In some instances, students would take pride in their improvements and reminisce positively
on their achievements One particularly outgoing student was able to talk about her successes
confidently after the second speaking test in week 9. In these speaking tests, students must
conduct a 16-minute discussion in small groups on a given topic question: “I was pleased
that I could ask for examples, ask questions to deepen the discussion, and use reactions ”
As the students take three speaking tests throughout the semester (in week five, nine, andthirteen), they have an opportunity to monitor their improvement Students are required todemonstrate their mastery of discussion skills, generally done through the use of functional language phrases in the discussion of a provided topic From this limited data, there is no
way to know how this may affect her in the future, but she may have a higher appraisal ofher abilities to succeed in the class Another student more explicitly connected his achievement in class with future goal-setting and devising a strategy to further improve his English:“Even though it is just a small improvement, I am using more vocabulary words when I try
to speak English, and so I would like to improve my English speaking skills in this way ”
This moment of achievement might suggest that through his success, this learner developed
confidence in his own ability to guide and monitor his own language learning process. These
positive emotions of self-regard might lend themselves to an increased effort or dedication to
the language learning process. In another case near the end of the course, a student identified
how through her own efforts, she was able to overcome her fear and feelings of nervousness
to speak out in class:Since I didn’t know how to convey my ideas in the beginning, I didn’t have courage tosay my opinion, but when I do try to say something, I learned that others can understand me Because of this, I could speak a number of times without feeling nervous
Not only with English, but now I can also speak to people to whom I first meet.
We can see that her positive experience of overcoming her fears had an impact on her identity She now saw herself as someone who could take more risks and she described her emotional response as changed, as not always experiencing nervousness when meeting someone
new These emotional confrontations in class led to personal growth and transformed her
fear. Where she presumably felt shy or nervous to talk with people she first met, she is now
able to take more risks and speak out It seems that through such positive learning experiences in class, the student had altered her self-image and the kind of emotions she would experience in social interactions Similarly, at the end of the course in week 14, another student
projected her classroom achievements onto a more ambitious goal of talking with people whoare not Japanese (and presumably do not speak Japanese): “I feel comfortable to speak in English better than before. I have gotten a little confidence to speak with foreigners.” It seems

16

Learner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 2018

Nicole Gallagherthat learners’ experience of accomplishment and pride can help them expand their self-image
and change their behavior, as well as affect the way they perceive their social environment.

Moments of Enjoyment
Students often described enjoying the class and the learning experience At the beginning of
the class, one of the students described how he was pleased with the class atmosphere andheld high expectations for the class with his classmates:
Even though I don’t have confidence to speak well, it was very fun. Since up until now I
have only studied English for the university entrance examinations and other students
were my competitors, I think learning together with other people who are earnest will
be good I like the atmosphere of this class
One student described her appreciation for and happiness with the social atmosphere created by the others in class by week 10, “Everyone is kind and I am extremely happy that everyone tries hard to try and understand my idea” Norton (2000) suggests that it is invaluable forsocial environments to be experienced as accessible for learners, in order for them to become
more invested in a language learning experience In the classroom, it seems that the joy thatstudents took in communicating and interacting with their classmates could be a motivating context for this particular social context Feelings of intimacy and closeness, or feelinga sense of community, may all be beneficial emotional states for investment in classroom
language learning These learners’ accounts of happiness and gratitude for their classmates,suggest they would find it easier to invest in the language learning experience in this particular classroom context

Discussion
Utilizing student written reflections to research the emotional landscape of language learning helped me to more intimately understand how the learners were experiencing the classThrough this process, this has had a positive effect on me as a teacher, as I have become moreaware and sensitive to the diversity of learners’ experiences in the class The research itself
became a catalyst for reflecting on the language learning process in the class. For example,
after reading through and transcribing the student responses, I would often find myself discussing with other instructors in my department what students had described in their writings. It was a personally enriching process to reflect on the experiences that the students
sharedIn this study, the learners’ written accounts capture a range of different emotions: anxiety,frustration, a sense of accomplishment, hope, and enjoyment I argue that, by noticing andreflecting on these emotions, teachers and researchers can better understand the social natureof language learning, how experiences might be shaping student identity, and how learners
might be making decisions about language learning. Reflecting on my own research process,I wonder what the students would think of my interpretation of their emotions In the future,
I would like to create opportunities for participants in such research on emotion to be able toread and comment on my interpretation of their emotions as a way to validate how I interpret
their experiences. As well, as some students were reflecting more actively than other students, it may be beneficial to explore what can help learners be more self-aware and reflective when using written reflection in a class.
Through the experience of using this writing activity in class, I came to better understandthe benefits of creating opportunities for students to reflect on their own learning. While not
Learner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 201817

Researching the Relationship of Learner Emotion to Language Learning: Issues and Challenges

all the students seemed equally invested in the process of reflection, some students’ writing
demonstrated an engagement in a process of self-awareness and goal-setting Through reflection, they were making decisions about the future, imagining how they might grow, anddevising new learning strategies On the other hand, it was also interesting to consider whysome students were less reflective or less open to talking about how they were feeling. I wondered—were they simply less interested in the reflection process, or did they feel less inclined
to openly share their thoughts in this way for other reasons (related to factors like disposition, culture, or gender expectations)? Indeed, it is hard to suggest a reason as the sample setof eight students is so small While I could draw on a richer data set from the more engaged
students, it was also an important insight to notice these differences in investment and emotional response among individual learners However, if the aim is to ensure that the research
process is a meaningful experience for the participants, it seems that having students volunteer as research participants would be more likely to produce results that could show thevalue of reflection in managing and better understanding emotional states.

Conclusion
At the outset of this study, I wanted to focus on emotion in order to better understand how
emotion might be affecting learners and language learning, and what kinds of emotions
might be salient in the classroom Through the study, I could point to several categories of
emotions that seemed relevant to the Japanese language learners in this classroom context.
However, as the data collection was quite limited in length and scope, it is difficult to draw
firmer conclusions about the outcomes of these emotional descriptions of language learning.
I would strongly argue that a richer data collection set is required to better understand how
different emotions might be affecting the language learning process. This might be conducted either through more extensive writing samples, or through interviews Secondly, as Swain(2013) suggests, emotion cannot exactly be separated from cognition or the social sphere In
future studies, examining more holistically the relationships between emotion, cognition, andthe social would be useful However, as this topic is quite expansive, it might be more appropriate either to focus on particular aspects of the relationship of emotion to cognition or
the social sphere, or to conduct smaller case studies that can afford to research the emotional
aspects of experience in more depth Finally, my approach to this research topic, study, andpaper has involved an ongoing, and quite personal evolution As I came from a place of notknowing what many of the answers were with regards to investigating emotion, conducting
in-class research, developing a qualitative study, writing up a qualitative study, and writing
the revisions for this paper, I find myself left with doubts about what I have accomplished orcontributed I ask myself whether this is enough While I do not have the knowledge to answer that question myself, I do recognize that I am closer to understanding what might bebetter research approaches to learner emotion What’s more, I am now much better preparedto join discussions about doing qualitative research

References
Barkhuizen, G., Benson P., & Chik, A. (2014) Narrative inquiry in language teaching and learning
research. New York, NY: Routledge
Benesch, S (2012) Considering emotions in critical English language teaching. New York, NY:
Routledge
Benesch, S (2017) Emotions and English language teaching. New York, NY: Routledge
Daiute, C., & Lightfoot, C. (2004). Narrative analysis: Studying the development of individuals insociety. London: Sage Publications, Inc

18

Learner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 2018

Nicole Gallagher

Damasio, A (1994) Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York, NY:
PenguinDarvin, R., & Norton, B. (2015). Identity and a model of investment in applied linguistics.
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 36-56
Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed
methodologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Douglas Fir Group (2016) A transdisciplinary framework for SLA in a multilingual world The
Modern Language Journal, 100, 19-47
Gallagher, N (2017) Emotion and communicative competence in English discussion class
Learning Learning, 24(2), 37-41
Imai, Y (2010) Emotions in SLA: New insights from collaborative learning for an EFL
classroom The Modern Language Journal, 94(2), 278-292
Kramsch, C (2009) The multilingual subject. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Krashen, S (1981) Second language acquisition and second language learning. New York, NY:
Prentice Hall
Miyahara, M. (2016). Narratives in language learning research: Developing a reflexive
framework Educational Studies: International Christian University, 59, 87-104
Norton, B (2000) Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change.
Harlow, England: Pearson Education
Norton, B (2013) Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation (2nd ed ) Bristol,England: Multilingual Matters
Pavlenko, A (2005) Emotions and multilingualism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Swain, M (2013) The inseparability of cognition and emotion in second language learning
Language Teaching, 46(2), 195-207
Weedon, C (1997) Feminist practice and poststructuralist theory (2nd ed ) London: Blackwell
Zemblyas, M (2005) Teaching with emotion: A postmodern enactment. Greenwich,
CT: Information Age Publishing

Review ProcessThis paper was peer-reviewed by the following contributors to Issue 2: Leena Karlsson andFergal Bradley It was also blind peer-reviewed by members of the Learner Development
Journal Review Network. (Contributors have the option of open or blind review.)

Author Bio
Nicole Gallagher is a lecturer in the Center for Global Education and Exchange at Toyo University and has been teaching at universities and high schools in Japan for the past 10 years.
She has an MA in TESOL from the University of Birmingham, UK Her research interests
include reflective practice, narrative inquiry, teacher beliefs, and emotion in the classroom Email: gallagher@toyo jp

Learner Development Journal • Volume 1: Issue 2 • December 201819