Emotions that facilitate language learning: The positive-broadening power of the imagination
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Date
2012-06
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Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu
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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 Drnyei, 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.
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Keywords
Imagination, Motivation, Self, Emotions, Positive-broadening
Citation
Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2012, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 193-213