Love and enjoyment in context: Four case studies of adolescent EFL learners

“In sum, then, the findings have revealed the social construction of positive emotions in language learning, confirming previous research such as Imai’s (2010), which has emphasized that “emotions .”

“Dewaele and MacIntyre (2014, 2016) highlight the role of the positive emotion of enjoyment by showing that anxiety can be experienced together with enjoyment in the foreign language classroom.”

“A loving instructor has this ability to strengthen students’ functioning and potentials Love can also potentially create effective coping mechanisms, motivate learners, and be the driving force in language learning (Pavelescu and Petrić, 2018).”

“, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) namely positive emotions and positive character traits have bloomed. Variables such as empathy, selves, flow, perseverance, motivation, engagement, perseverance, love, and passion have attracted widespread attention. One vibrant area that has expanded geographically and methodolo…”

“Interest moved beyond foreign language (classroom) anxiety to include a wider spectrum of emotions including enjoyment, love, pride, hope, shame, guilt, and boredom (e.g. MacIntyre et al., 2019; Pavelescu & Petrić, 2018; Teimouri, 2018).”

“As a typical and common positive emotion experienced by foreign language learners, FLE has attracted increasing scholarly attention (Dewaele and MacIntyre, 2014; Pavelescu and Petric, 2018).”

“…attention, is considered one of the most prevailing and salient positive emotions in L2 learning across different contexts and can make students more persistent in the face of challenges and better process target languages (Jiang & Dewaele, 2019; J. S. Lee & Lee, 2021; Pavelescu & Petric, 2018).”

“For example, Pavelescu and Petrić (2018) investigated the emotional experiences of four Romanian EFL high school students and found that enjoyment and love were the most frequently experienced positive emotions during their language learning process.”

“The main positive emotions addressed have been enjoyment, love, flow, and pride (MacIntyre and Mercer, 2014; Pavelescu and Petric, 2018).”

“…and Taherian 2018; Li, Jiang, and Dewaele 2018), guilt and shame (Galmiche 2017;Teimouri 2018), pride (Abo-Zaied Arar and Tannenbaum 2019), love (Pavelescu and Petri ć 2018), anger, excitement, hope, joy, frustration (MacIntyre et al. 2019; MacIntyre and Vincze 2017), and boredom (Kruk 2019;…”

“Only in recent years have positive emotions like love (Pavelescu & Petrić, 2018), pride (Ross & Stracke, 2016), hope (Ross & Rivers, 2018), and enjoyment (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2016) been brought to light, as triggered by the introduction of positive psychology into the field of SLA (MacIntyre,…”

“The former is in fl uenced by friendly and supportive peers and teacher and the latter by the private dimension focused on personal progress and self-development (Dewaele and MacIntyre 2014, 2016; Pavelescu and Petric 2018).”

“, 2017), Romanian high school learners (Pavelescu and Petrić, 2018), British pupils and Saudi undergraduates (Dewaele and Alfawzan, 2018), Saudi Arabic university students (Alrabai, 2022), Spanish EFL learners (Dewaele et al.”

“(1986), researchers have studied a broader variety of L2 emotions covering positive activating emotions, positive deactivating emotions, negative activating emotions and negative deactivating emotions (Pavelescu and Petrić, 2018; Teimouri, 2018; Han and Hyland, 2019; Li and Xu, 2019; Jiang, 2020; Li, 2021).”

“Learning another language is an emotional as well as cognitive process (Pavelescu & Petrić, 2018, p. 74).”

“Apart from negative emotions, their positive counterparts such as love and empathy were also explored in regard to their relationship with language learners’ well-being [37,38].”

“…that students’ FLE is positively correlated with their supportive and intimate peers, as well as positive and encouraging foreign language teachers who offer various interesting and challenging classroom activities for their learners (Dewaele and MacIntyre 2014; Pavelescu and Petric 2018).”

“EFL adolescents often experience a variety of complex and dynamic academic-related emotions during their learning processes, such as enjoyment, pride, boredom, and guilt (De Neve et al., 2023; Feng et al., 2023; Pavelescu & Petric, 2018).”

“Several studies reported that enjoyment was of the most frequently experienced positive emotions (Pavelescu and Petrić 2018).”

“…completing novel and challenging tasks is rewarding (Li, Jiang, and Dewaele 2018; Mierzwa 2019; Pan 2022; Zhang and Tsung 2021), prompting them to actively involve in the language learning environment (Dewaele, Botes, and Greiff 2023; Dewaele and Proietti Ergu ̈ n 2020; Pavelescu and Petrić 2018).”

“Foreign language enjoyment is greatly influenced by its scholastic cycle, like associating with caring and cooperative peers, along with interacting with eager language teachers who offer a diversity of interesting and demanding class activities for the sake of involving students (Pavelescu and Petric, 2018).”

“Teachers should be mindful to recognize the significance of invoking students’ enjoyment, by way of building caring relationships with students as well as providing various interesting and challenging activities to engage students (Pavelescu and Petric, 2018).”

“It could improve learners’ ability to notice language input in the classroom, thus increasing the likelihood for learners of absorbing more foreign language, and make learners more resilient and harder in face of difficulties (Pavelescu & Petric, 2018; Prior, 2019).”

“…second-language acquisition on emotion regulation and loving pedagogy is scant, yet these psychological variables contribute to successful teaching and may be a motivator for FLL (Ghanizadeh and Moafian, 2010; Pavelescu and Petric, 2018; Bielak and Mystkowska-Wiertelak, 2020; Wang et al., 2021).”

“It has been found that the reasons for triggering the emotion of love may vary from person to person, as some students enjoy role-playing while others find it pleasurable to read English novels [39].”

“Enjoyment, as one of the most salient positive emotions, is defined as the perception of satisfaction and reward in or by the results of activities (Ainley and Hidi, 2014; Pavelescu and Petric, 2018).”

“Under this influence, enjoyment became one of the most studied positive emotions (Jiang & Dewaele, 2019) and established a focal point within the positive emotional network (Pavelescu & Petri (cid:1) c, 2018; Piniel & Albert, 2018) across different contexts.”

“Several studies reported that enjoyment was one of the most frequently experienced positive emotions (Dewaele & Li, 2018; Elahi Shirvan & Taherian, 2018; Pavelescu & Petric, 2018).”

“…positively correlated with the affirmative classroom environment, characterized by supportive educators, cohesive student interaction, and a task-oriented approach, among Iranian secondary school students, which has been echoed by other studies (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014; Pavelescu & Petrić, 2018).”

“It is also worth mentioning that one study (0.8 %; [34]) linked enjoyment to another essential positive emotion, love, revealing that love for the target language could make up for decreases in enjoyment and sustain language learning efforts in the face of challenges and adversity.”

“There is a need to recognize enjoyment as a powerful motivator in SLA (Pavelescu & Petrić, 2018; Piniel & Albert, 2018).”

“(2022) show high levels of heterogeneity (I2 > 0.80), suggesting that the study’s relationship with FLE may be exacerbated or hindered by other factors.”

“Positive interactions with friendly peers, supportive and encouraging teachers, and an interesting and adequately challenging classroom environment mediate enjoyment (Pavelescu & Petric, 2018).”

“It should be taken into consideration that efficacious coping mechanisms can be created and students can feel motivated when love exists (Pavelescu and Petri’c, 2018).”

“Enjoyment is a strong incentive for SLA (Dewaele and Alfawzan, 2018; Pavelescu and Petri’c, 2018; Piniel and Albert, 2018) and it is a particularly interesting constructive feeling that refers to the feeling people experience when they go beyond just meeting their demands to achieve something unprecedented or amazing…”

“…psychometric measures of shame and guilt were also introduced by Teimouri (2018), while qualitative explorations of love of language learning (Pavelescu & Petri ć , 2018) and theoretical discussions on love of language teaching (Barcelos & Coelho, 2016) can also be found in the literature.”

“Language learners who feel positive emotions are more likely to make more efforts to master their linguistic skills (Pavelescu & Petric, 2018).”

“Unlike enjoyment, researchers believed that love is the driving force that enables students to make continuous progress in and out of the classroom, thereby expanding their cognition and sustaining lasting engagement in SL/FL learning [14].”

“Enjoyment is widely recognized as a significant determinant of FL/L2 learning (Pavelescu & Petric, 2018).”

“, 2018) and the latter by the private dimension focused on personal progress and self-development (Dewaele andMacIntyre, 2014, 2016; Pavelescu and Petric, 2018).”

“Relationships between learning enjoyment and loving pedagogy (Pavelescu and Petrić, 2018), teachers and teaching practices (Dewaele et al.”

“The extant literature suggests that peers are often associated with positive effects on FLE through friendliness, giving positive feedback, and being supportive (e.g. Dewaele and MacIntyre, 2014, 2022; Pavelescu and Petric, 2018; Zheng and Zhou, 2022).”

“…opportunities for social interaction and collaboration, which play a pivotal role in shaping students’ positive emotions (e.g., enjoyment) and diminishing negative emotions (e.g., boredom) in English learning (Derakhshan et al., 2024; Pavelescu & Petric, 2018; Wang & Wang, 2024; Xie & Guo, 2023).”

“This finding indicates that other language learners need to see that polyglots’ ways of learning are not confined to the school walls and the classroom (Noprival et al., 2022; Pavelescu & Petric, 2018).”

“…approaches have integrated wearable sensors with contextual data such as self-reported questionnaires or interaction logs, allowing for more precise identification of anxiety-related episodes (Elahi Shirvan et al., 2021; MacIntyre & Gregersen, 2022; Pavelescu & Petri´c, 2018; Waninge et al., 2014).”

“…outcomes, including increased willingness to communicate, as well as improved attention and language processing abilities (Boudreau et al., 2018; Dewaele & Alfawzan, 2018; Dewaele & Alfawzan, 2018; Khajavy et al., 2018; Pavelescu & Petric, 2018; Piniel & Albert, 2018; Saito et al., 2018).”

“It is perhaps unsurprising then, that a large volume of published research describes the positive role of enjoyment in learning (e.g., Boudreau et al., 2018; Pavelescu & Petric, 2018).”