Boosting enjoyment, peace of mind and countering anxiety and boredom in foreign language learning

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.

In this talk, Jean-Marc Dewaele 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. He 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.

This event will be particularly useful for researchers, students and teachers.

Related links

• Centre for Applied Linguistics
• Department of Culture, Communication and Media

Image

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