Second language listening comprehension: The role of anxiety and enjoyment in listening metacognitive awareness

• Authors: Lanxi Wang , Peter MacIntyre

Abstracts

EN

Emotion in second language acquisition (SLA) has recently received greater attention because it is largely implicated in daily conversations, which may affect second or foreign language (L2) use including listening comprehension. Most research into emotion and L2 listening comprehension is focused exclusively on anxiety, with an attempt to reduce its negative effects on individuals’ listening performance. With the arrival of positive psychology in SLA, researchers began to take a holistic view of a wider range of emotions including enjoyment that language learners experience during their L2 communication. The current study explored the relationships among listening anxiety, enjoyment, listening comprehension performance, and listening metacognitive awareness among a group of 410 international students in a Canadian university. Correlational analyses showed that listening anxiety was negatively correlated with enjoyment. However, these two variables shared only 18% of their variance, indicating that listening anxiety and enjoyment are related but independent emotions. This study suggests that anxiety and enjoyment in L2 listening are not the opposite ends of the same emotional continuum, but each serves a different purpose. L2 learners should work to find intriguing and enjoyable experiences in language learning, rather than focusing merely on reducing anxiety.

Keywords

EN

second language listening comprehension; listening anxiety; listening enjoyment; listening metacognitive awareness

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 491-515

Dates

published

2021

Contributors

author

Lanxi Wang

• Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada

• https://orcid.org/0000000169516177

author

Peter MacIntyre

• Cape Breton University, Sydney, Canada

• https://orcid.org/0000000210856692

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Identifiers

DOI

10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.4.2

Biblioteka Nauki

2051528