Closing Conference

Bionote

Jean-Marc Dewaele has published widely on emotion and individual differences in language learning. He is General Editor of the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. He won Research Awards from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, the International Association of Language and Social Psychology, the European Second Language Association and the International Association for the Psychology of Language Learning. He was ranked as the 2nd most influential linguist in the world in the Stanford rankings 2025.

Abstract

Learner emotions are ubiquitous in foreign language classes around the world. After an initial period during which the focus was solely on anxiety (1980s-2010s), a new phase emerged with the introduction of the Positive Psychology in the field (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014). In this talk I will discuss the psychological, contextual and educational causes of both negative and positive learner emotions and show how they affect performance and progress in the foreign language (Resnik et al., 2025). I will argue that while teachers cannot entirely banish negative emotions from the classroom, they can adopt strategies to alleviate the negative emotions and to boost students’ positive emotions by creating a safe, positive classroom atmosphere conducive to engagement.

References

• Dewaele, J.-M., & MacIntyre, P.D. (2014). The two faces of Janus? Anxiety and enjoyment in the foreign language classroom. Studies in Second Language Learning Teaching, 4, 237-274.
• Resnik, P., Dewaele, J.-M., Li, C. & Botes, E. (2025). The role of positive and negative emotions in foreign language learning: A research agenda. Language Teaching, 1–26. doi:10.1017/S0261444825101031