The Emotional Experience Of Learning English As A Foreign Language: A Qualitative Study In The Context Of Saudi Arabia
Abstract
Foreign language acquisition is not only a cognitive but also an emotional process. Recently, numerous qualitative studies have deepened our understanding of the emotional worlds of EFL students, showing the diversity of emotions and their influence on EFL. In Saudi Arabia, EFL has posed significant challenges (e.g. lack of motivation for studying, negative emotions associated with EFL) to all actors involved, and studying emotional experiences of Saudi EFL students can help us surpass these challenges. This pilot qualitative study aimed to give a phenomenological description of emotions experienced by Saudi EFL students. Inductive Thematic Analysis yielded four main themes: kinds of emotions, motivation dynamics, English learning trajectory, and quality of the encounter. Significant variability and diversity of emotional experiences was evident – participants mainly felt happy and motivated by their extracurricular English activities, while they were more ambiguous with respect to their English teachers. It was also found that initial EFL experiences were more negative compared to the latter ones.
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