Exploring fluctuations in the relationship between learners’ positive emotional engagement and their interactional behaviours

Abstract

This study investigated the nature of learners’ positive emotional engagement during a task-based interaction and its relationship with their interactional behaviours. Vietnamese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL; n = 74) performed a communicative task in dyads in 15 minutes. Their positive emotional engagement was gauged using an Experience Sampling Method via a questionnaire that the participants completed after every five-minute interval of the interaction, capturing three timepoints of learners’ emotional engagement. Learners’ cognitive and social interactional behaviours were examined in light of the amount of second language production (words and turns), language-related episodes (LREs), and the degree of collaboration. Results showed that learners’ positive emotional engagement fluctuated over the course of a 15-minute interaction. Also, learners’ levels of positive emotional engagement were positively correlated with the amount of second language production and the degree of collaboration, but these relationships varied across the three intervals. No relationship was observed between learners’ emotional engagement and LREs. The results indicate that although learners’ positive emotional engagement may not be linked with their attention to form, relationships exist between learners’ positive emotional engagement and their language production, as well as their social relationships. These relationships can be, however, subject to change over the course of a short interaction.

Dynamic engagement in second language computer-mediated collaborative writing tasks: Does communication mode matter?

“…For both modes, task design factors and learner factors seemed to mediate engagement to a moderate extent. Consistent with task-based research (e.g., Aubrey, 2017aAubrey, , 2017bDao & Sato, 2021;Qiu & Lo, 2017), task interest and familiarity played a facilitating role in engagement.…”

“…They found that enjoyment and anxiety were highly dynamic, with patterns of correlation ranging from negative to positive, suggesting that elevated enjoyment occurred during varying levels of anxiety. In a recent classroom-based study, Dao and Sato (2021) measured dynamic affective engagement, operationalized as enjoyment and interest, via a questionnaire at three five-minute intervals during a 15-minute speaking task. They found these measures to increase significantly from the first to second interval, suggesting that, despite using less nuanced measurement methods, affective engagement is still susceptible to considerable change within a task.…”

Introduction: Combining learner psychology and ISLA research: Intersections in the classroom

“…The idiodynamic measures and postinterviews revealed that learners' motivations and emotions influenced their WTC moment-to-moment and the ways in which they communicated with the conversation partner. Dao and Sato (2021; the current special issue) also identified fluctuations of positive emotional engagement during a 15-minute communicative task. MacIntyre (2020) argued that capturing those 'rapid changes in the psychological conditions' (p. 111) is important to understand both changes in and the stability of communicative processes.…”

“…Sato (2017) explored interaction mindset -'a disposition toward the task and/or an interlocutor prior to and/or during the interaction' (p. 250) -and reported that the construct predicted interactional behaviors as well as L2 development. Dao and Sato (2021; the current special issue) operationalized positive emotional engagement as enjoyment and interest, and observed learner interactions. The correlation analyses showed that learners' emotional engagement was related to the amount of L2 production and the degree of collaboration; however, emotional engagement was found to be uncorrelated with the amount of attention to form operationalized as language-related episodes.…”

A Theoretical Review on the Impact of EFL/ESL Students’ Self-Sabotaging Behaviors on Their Self-Esteem and Academic Engagement

“…Student engagement as a positive variable flourished by PP proponents has been scrutinized in different contexts. Scientific findings have pinpointed that it is positively correlated with effective learning, persistence, retention, motivation, resilience, ambiguity tolerance, agency, willingness to communicate (WTC), and learning perception ( Wimpenny and Savin-Baden, 2013 ; Radmehr and Karami, 2019 ; Dao and Sato, 2021 ; Gu and Sun, 2021 ; Hiver et al, 2021 ; Wind, 2021 ; Zhang, 2021 ). Other than learning benefits, student engagement can meaningfully contribute to students’ socialization, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being ( Trowler and Trowler, 2010 ; Zepke, 2015 ).…”