Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/54-2/1
Between (Foreign) Language Anxiety and Enjoyment: An Idiodynamic Study of Affective Oscillations during Communication in a Foreign Language
Višnja Čičin-Šain
orcid.org/0000-0002-6579-3270
; Sveučilište u Splitu
Sažetak
The role of emotions in second language acquisition research has grown significantly over
the past two decades, particularly the relationship between Foreign Language Enjoyment ((F)
LE) and Foreign Language Anxiety ((F)LA) as two co-occurring affective states that play contrasting
roles in this process (Botes et al., 2022). Following the “dynamic” and “affective turns,”
emotions are increasingly investigated as short-lived experiences driven by immediate communicative
needs. Using an idiodynamic, mixed-methods approach (MacIntyre & Ducker,
2022), the aim of this case study of Croatian speakers of English is to understand the relationship
between foreign language anxiety and foreign language enjoyment in real time, as well
as to examine their intensity, duration, and the reasons for their occurrence during a brief
FL speaking situation. Ten participants answered questions in English. The interaction was
video-recorded. While reviewing the recording in specialized software, participants provided
numerical ratings of the intensity of “anxiety” and “enjoyment.” Immediately afterwards, in a
stimulated-recall interview, they verbalized the reasons behind their self-reports. Group-level
results show that, for most participants, anxiety and enjoyment are negatively correlated,
whereas micro- and segmented analyses reveal a substantially more complex relationship (cf.
Boudreau et al., 2018). As the most common triggers of anxiety, qualitative coding identified
difficulties in conceptualizing and articulating intended content, as well as error awareness.
Topic-related factors and task performance were reported as the most common triggers of
enjoyment. In conclusion, emotions in FL speech are fleeting, strongly shaped by immediate
contextual demands and, in contrast to group results, display heterogeneous individual micro-
dynamics.
Ključne riječi
Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA); Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE); idiodynamic method; English as a Foreign Language (EFL); foreign language communication
Hrčak ID:
346078
URI
Datum izdavanja:
16.2.2026.
Posjeta: 212 *