Teacher enthusiasm is attracting growing attention in educational and learner psychology research. There is evidence that teacher enthusiasm is contagious in class and positively affects student emotions. Their fundamental role in shaping student engagement has also been well documented. However, the links – between teacher enthusiasm and student emotions, and between student emotions and engagement – remain underexplored in instructed second language acquisition. The present study adopted a mixed-method approach to examine the complex relationships between perceived teacher enthusiasm, emotions (enjoyment and boredom), and social-behavioral learning engagement among 2,002 learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) from 11 universities in China. Quantitative analyses showed small to large correlations between perceived teacher enthusiasm, enjoyment, boredom, and social-behavioral learning engagement. In addition, student enjoyment and boredom were found to co-mediate the relationship between perceptions of teacher enthusiasm and student social-behavioral engagement in English classes. Qualitative interviews with nine students provided insights into the potential causes of the statistical patterns. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed, followed by directions for future research.
AinleyM.AinleyJ. (2011). Student engagement with science in early adolescence: The contribution of enjoyment to students’ continuing interest in learning about science. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36, 4–12.
2.
BotesE.DewaeleJ.-M.GreiffS. (2021). Taking stock: An overview of the literature and a preliminary meta-analysis of foreign language enjoyment and other individual differences variables. PsyArXiv. Epub ahead of print. DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/guaj5.
3.
CollinsM.L. (1978). Effects of enthusiasm training on preservice elementary teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 29, 53–57.
4.
CreswellJ.W. (2014). A concise introduction to mixed methods research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
5.
DanielsL.M.TzeV.M.C.GoetzT. (2015). Examining boredom: Different causes for different coping profiles. Learning and Individual Differences, 37, 255–261.
6.
DewaeleJ.-M.LiC. (2020). Emotions in second language acquisition: A critical review and research agenda. Foreign Language World, 1, 34–49.
7.
DewaeleJ.-M.MacIntyreP.D. (2014). The two faces of Janus? Anxiety and enjoyment in the foreign language classroom. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4, 237–274.
8.
DewaeleJ.-M.MacIntyreP.D. (2016). Foreign language enjoyment and foreign language classroom anxiety: The right and left feet of FL learning? In MacIntyreP.GregersenT.MercerS. (Eds.), Positive psychology in SLA (pp. 215–236). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
9.
DewaeleJ.-M.MacIntyreP.D. (2019). The predictive power of multicultural personality traits, learner and teacher variables on foreign language enjoyment and anxiety. In SatoM.LoewenS. (Eds.), Evidence-based second language pedagogy: A collection of instructed second language acquisition studies (pp. 263–286). London: Routledge.
10.
DewaeleJ.-M.ChenX.PadillaA.M.LakeJ. (2019a). The flowering of positive psychology in foreign language teaching and acquisition research. Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences, 10, 2128.
11.
DewaeleJ.-M.Franco MagdalenaA.SaitoK. (2019b). The effect of perception of teacher characteristics on Spanish EFL Learners’ Anxiety and Enjoyment. The Modern Language Journal, 103, 412–427.
12.
DewaeleJ.-M.WitneyJ.SaitoK.DewaeleL. (2018). Foreign language enjoyment and anxiety in the FL classroom: The effect of teacher and learner variables. Language Teaching Research, 22, 676–697.
13.
FredricksonB.L. (2003). The value of positive emotions: The emerging science of positive psychology is coming to understand why it’s good to feel good. American Scientist, 91, 330–335.
14.
FrenzelA.C.GoetzT.LüdtkeO.PekrunR.SuttonR.E. (2009). Emotional transmission in the classroom: Exploring the relationship between teacher and student enjoyment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101, 705–716.
15.
FrenzelA.C.Becker-KurzB.PekrunR.GoetzT.LüdtkeO. (2018). Emotion transmission in the classroom revisited: A reciprocal effects model of teacher and student enjoyment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 110, 628–639.
16.
GkonouC.MercerS. (2017). Understanding emotional and social intelligence among English language teachers. Discussion paper. British Council ELT Research Papers. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312475321 (accessed April 2021).
17.
GoetzT.PekrunR.HallN.HaagL. (2006). Academic emotions from a social-cognitive perspective: Antecedents and domain specificity of students’ affect in the context of Latin instruction. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 289–308.
18.
HayesA.F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis. New York: Guilford Publications.
19.
HenryA.ThorsenC. (2020). Disaffection and agentic engagement: ‘Redesigning’ activities to enable authentic self-expression. Language Teaching Research, 24, 456–475.
20.
HiverP.Al-HoorieA.H.MercerS. (Eds.). (2021). Student engagement in the language classroom. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
21.
JiangY. (2020). An investigation of the effect of teacher on Chinese university students’ foreign language enjoyment. Foreign Language World, 196, 60–68.
22.
JiangY.DewaeleJ.-M. (2019). How unique is the foreign language classroom enjoyment and anxiety of Chinese EFL learners?System, 82, 13–25.
23.
KellerM.M.HoyA.W.GoetzT.FrenzelA.C. (2016). Teacher enthusiasm: Reviewing and redefining a complex construct. Educational Psychology Review, 28, 743–769.
24.
KhajavyG.H.MacIntyreP.D.BarabadiE. (2018). Role of the emotions and classroom environment in willingness to communicate: Applying doubly latent multilevel analysis in second language acquisition research. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 40, 605–624.
25.
KrukM. (2019). Dynamicity of perceived willingness to communicate, motivation, boredom and anxiety in second life: The case of two advanced learners of English. Computer Assisted Language Learning. Epub ahead of print 22October2019. DOI: 10.1080/09588221.2019.1677722.
26.
KrukM.ZawodniakJ. (2018). Boredom in practical English language classes: Insights from interview data. In SzymańskiL.ZawodniakJ.ŁobodziecA.SmolukM. (Eds.), Interdisciplinary views on the English language, literature and culture (pp. 177–191). Zielona Góra: Uniwersytet Zielonogórski.
27.
KunterM.TsaiY.-M.KlusmannU.BrunnerM.KraussS.BaumertJ. (2008). Students’ and mathematics teachers’ perceptions of teacher enthusiasm and instruction. Learning and Instruction, 18, 468–482.
LazaridesR.BuchholzJ.RubachC. (2018). Teacher enthusiasm and self-efficacy, student-perceived mastery goal orientation, and student motivation in mathematics classrooms. Teaching and Teacher Education, 69, 1–10.
30.
LazaridesR.GaspardH.DickeA.-L. (2019). Dynamics of classroom motivation: Teacher enthusiasm and the development of math interest and teacher support. Learning and Instruction, 60, 126–137.
31.
LiC. (2020). A Positive Psychology Perspective on Emotional Intelligence and Classroom Emotions in Second Language Learning. Wuhan, China: Wuhan University Press.
32.
LiC. (2021). A control-value theory approach to boredom in English classes among university students in China. The Modern Language Journal, 105, 317–334.
33.
LiC.JiangG.DewaeleJ.-M. (2018). Understanding Chinese high school students’ foreign language enjoyment: Validation of the Chinese version of the foreign language enjoyment scale. System, 76, 183–196.
34.
LiC.DewaeleJ.-M. (2020). The predictive effects of trait emotional intelligence and online learning achievement perceptions on foreign language class boredom among chinese university students. Foreign Languages and Their Teaching, 5, 33–44.
35.
LiC.DewaeleJ.-M.HuY. (2021). Foreign language learning boredom: Conceptualization and measurement. Applied Linguistics Review. Epub ahead of print 13 January 2021. DOI: 10.1515/applirev-2020-0124.
36.
LiC.HuangJ.LiB. (2021). The predictive effects of classroom environment and trait emotional intelligence on foreign language enjoyment and anxiety. System, 96, 102393.
37.
Linnenbrink-GarciaL.PekrunR. (2011). Students’ emotions and academic engagement: Introduction to the special issue. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36, 1–3.
38.
Linnenbrink-GarciaL.RogatT.K.KoskeyK.L.K. (2011). Affect and engagement during small group instruction. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36, 13–24.
39.
LiuM.WronskiL. (2018). Trap questions in online surveys: Results from three web survey experiments. International Journal of Market Research, 60, 32–49.
40.
MacIntyreP.D.GregersenT. (2012). Emotions that facilitate language learning: The positive-broadening power of the imagination. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2, 193–213.
41.
MacIntyreP.D.GregersenT.MercerS. (2019). Setting an agenda for positive psychology in SLA: Theory, practice, and research. The Modern Language Journal, 103, 262–274.
42.
MacklemG.L. (2015). Boredom in the classroom: Addressing student motivation, self-regulation, and engagement in learning. Cham: Springer.
43.
MercerS. (2019). Language learner engagement: Setting the scene. In GaoX. (Ed.), Second handbook of English language teaching (pp. 643–660). Cham: Springer.
44.
MoskowitzS.DewaeleJ.-M. (2021). Is teacher happiness contagious? A study of the link between perceptions of language teacher happiness and student self-reported attitudes and motivation. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 15, 117–130.
45.
Oga-BaldwinW.L.Q. (2019). Acting, thinking, feeling, making, collaborating: The engagement process in foreign language learning. System, 86, 102128.
46.
PattonM.Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
47.
PavelescuL.M.PetrićB. (2018). Love and enjoyment in context: Four case studies of adolescent EFL learners. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 8, 73–102.
48.
PavlenkoA. (2013). The affective turn in SLA: From ‘affective factors’ to ‘language desire’ and ‘commodification of affect’. In Gabrys-BarkerD.BielskaJ. (Eds.), The affective dimension in second language acquisition (pp. 3–28). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
49.
PawlakM.KrukM.ZawodniakJ. (2020a). Investigating individual trajectories in experiencing boredom in the language classroom: The case of 11 Polish students of English. Language Teaching Research. Epub ahead of print 16 April 2020. DOI: 10.1177/1362168820914004.
50.
PawlakM.KrukM.ZawodniakJ.PasikowskiS. (2020b). Investigating factors responsible for boredom in English classes: The case of advanced learners. System, 91, 102259.
51.
PekrunR. (2006). The Control-Value Theory of achievement emotions: Assumptions, corollaries, and implications for educational research and practice. Educational Psychology Review, 18, 315–341.
52.
PekrunR.Linnenbrink-GarciaL. (2012). Academic emotions and student engagement. In ChristensonS.L.ReschlyA.L.WylieC. (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 259–282). New York: Springer.
53.
PekrunR.PerryR.P. (2014). Control-Value Theory of achievement emotions. In PekrunR.Linnenbrink-GarciaL. (Eds.), International handbook of emotions in education (pp. 130–151). London: Routledge.
54.
PekrunR.StephensE.J. (2010). Achievement emotions: A control-value approach. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4, 238–255.
55.
PekrunR.FrenzelA.C.GoetzT.PerryR.P. (2007). The control-value theory of achievement emotions: An integrative approach to emotions in education. In SchutzP.A.PekrunR. (Eds.), Emotion in education (pp. 13–36). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
56.
PekrunR.GoetzT.FrenzelA.C.BarchfeldP.PerryR.P. (2011). Measuring emotions in students’ learning and performance: The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ). Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36, 36–48.
57.
PhilpJ.DuchesneS. (2016). Exploring engagement in tasks in the language classroom. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 36, 50–72.
58.
Piechurska-KucielE. (2017). L2 or L3? Foreign language enjoyment and proficiency. In Gabryś-BarkerG.D.GałajdaD.WojtaszekA.ZakrajewskiP. (Eds.), Multiculturalism, multilingualism and the self (pp. 97–111). New York: Springer.
59.
PinielK.AlbertA. (2018). Advanced learners’ foreign language-related emotions across the four skills. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 8, 127–147.
60.
PlonskyL.OswaldF.L. (2014). How big is ‘big’? Interpreting effect sizes in L2 research. Language Learning, 64, 878–912.
61.
ReeveJ. (2012). A self-determination theory perspective on student engagement. In ChristensonS.L.ReschlyA.L.WylieC. (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement (pp. 149–172). New York: Springer.
62.
SampsonR.J. (2020). The feeling classroom: Diversity of feelings in instructed L2 learning. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 14, 203–217.
63.
SatoM. (2017). Interaction mindsets, interactional behaviors, and L2 development: An affective-social-cognitive model. Language Learning, 67, 249–283.
64.
SatoM.CsizérK. (2021). Introduction: Combining learner psychology and ISLA research: Intersections in the classroom. Language Teaching Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688211044237
65.
SatoM.LoewenS. (2019). Towards evidence-based second language pedagogy: Research proposals and pedagogical recommendations. In SatoM.LoewenS. (Eds.), Evidence-based second language pedagogy: A collection of instructed second language acquisition studies (pp. 1–24). New York: Routledge.
66.
SeligmanM.E.P.CsikszentmihalyiM. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5–14.
67.
ShernoffD.J.CsikszentmihalyiM.SchneiderB.ShernoffE.S. (2014). Student engagement in high school classrooms from the perspective of flow theory. In CsikszentmihalyiM. (Ed.), Applications of flow in human development and education (pp. 475–494). Dordrecht: Springer.
68.
StorchN. (2002). Patterns of interaction in ESL pair work. Language Learning, 52, 119–158.
69.
SvalbergA.M.-L. (2018). Researching language engagement; current trends and future directions. Language Awareness, 27, 21–39.
70.
TalebzadehN.Elahi ShirvanM.KhajavyG.H. (2020). Dynamics and mechanisms of foreign language enjoyment contagion. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 14, 399–420,
71.
TeimouriY. (2018). Differential roles of shame and guilt in L2 learning: How bad is bad?Modern Language Journal, 102, 632–652.
72.
TzeV.M.C.KlassenR.M.DanielsL.M. (2014). Patterns of boredom and its relationship with perceived autonomy support and engagement. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 39, 175–187.
