9 Foreign Language Enjoyment and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety: The Right and Left Feet of the Language Learner

Abstract

From the introduction: "In a mixed-methods study, Jean-Marc Dewaele and Peter MacIntyre associated enjoyment and anxiety in the foreign language classroom with the left foot and the right foot of the language learner. Their results from a principal components analysis of 29 items given to over 1700 learners from around the world revealed three dimensions, labelled Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety, Foreign Language Enjoyment – Social, and Foreign Language Enjoyment – Private. Supporting the quantitative results is a series of excerpts from the participants who were asked to describe enjoyable episodes in the foreign language class. Surprisingly, some of the most enjoyable episodes involve what might be considered risky or even ill-advised teaching techniques, such as singling out students and making fun of errors in the classroom. Consistent with Csikszentmihalyi (2008), the authors highlight the risk that is inherent in episodes that learners report as being most enjoyable." (p. 6)