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.