Exploring Chinese EFL Learners' Achievement Emotions and Their Antecedents in an Online English Learning Environment

Abstract

Drawing on the control-value theory, this study adopted a qualitative approach to explore the various achievement emotions Chinese EFL learners experienced in an online English learning environment and their antecedents during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Data were collected from six Chinese EFL students through semi-structured interviews and reflective journals supplemented with their class notes. Thematic analysis was performed using the qualitative data management software NVivo 12 plus. Results showed that the students experienced diverse emotions such as enjoyment, relaxation, anxiety, guilt, boredom and helplessness. Apart from the environmental antecedents of teacher and peer factors and individual antecedents of control-value appraisals, four novel antecedents were identified which had influence on emotions experienced in the online learning context, including environmental antecedents of internet connection and workload outside classroom, as well as the individual antecedents of students' self-regulation of learning behavior and learning environment.

Exploring the motivational states of English learning among Chinese EFL learners at tertiary-level: A perspective of Directed Motivational Currents

“…What needs to be pointed out is that Chinese participants with welldefined visions could get highly motivated in the traditional classroom context as well as the online learning environment. Such a finding verified the presence of salient motivational structure in participants' hope for English language learning, supporting the claim that hope plays an important part in facilitating learners' language learning motivation under both face-to-face and online learning environment (Marchand and Gutierrez, 2012;Yang et al, 2021). Furthermore, the participants' motivational stories of attending the IELTS training courses indicated that they enjoyed the strong personal pleasures in accomplishing some subgoals or obtaining encouragements from others.…”

Understanding students’ self-regulated learning and anxiety in online English courses in higher education

“…In recent years, research has shifted toward investigating students' anxiety in online learning environments, owing to the availability of numerous online tools that enable synchronous online meetings and the breakout of COVID-19. Yang et al [ 39 ] confirmed the presence of anxiety among students enrolled in online courses; this emotion is likely influenced by environmental antecedents such as internet connectivity and workload outside the classroom, as well as individual antecedents such as students' self-regulation of learning behavior and learning environment. Similarly, Li and Dewaele [ 40 ] examined the anxiety of 1526 Chinese secondary students enrolled in online English classes using the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) [ 2 ].…”

A qualitative analysis of control-value appraisals, positive achievement emotions, and EFL performance in a Chinese senior high school context

“…For instance, within the framework of the CVT, Shao et al (2020b) , recruiting 550 Chinese university students as participants, quantitatively found that perceived control and perceived value were positively correlated with positive emotions and foreign language performance, and negatively correlated with negative emotions, and negative focal emotions played a mediating role between control-value appraisals and foreign language performance. Besides, Yang et al (2021) qualitatively explored Chinese English learners’ achievement emotions and their antecedents in online courses during the period of COVID 19 and found that students experienced various emotions such as enjoyment, relaxation, anxiety, guilt, boredom, and hopelessness and that four antecedents existed in online English courses, namely Internet connection, workload outside the classroom, students’ self-regulation of learning behavior, and learning environment. Moreover, Li (2021) , with the employment of mixed methods, collected quantitative data from 2002 university students, along with qualitative data from 12 university students and 12 university teachers, concluding that different control-value appraisals solely and interactively predicted boredom and more complex associations existed between control-value appraisals and boredom.…”