Motivation, Autonomy and Emotions in Foreign Language Learning

This book highlights the roles of several individual difference (ID) variables on the language learning process, exploring them from both the students’ and the teachers’ perspectives. It presents the results of a large-scale, mixed-methods investigation which was conducted with secondary school pupils and their teachers in Hungary. The quantitative questionnaire data is used to analyze the English language learners’ motivation, autonomy and self-efficacy beliefs, and to examine the relationships between these and a wide range of positive and negative emotions. The qualitative data, consisting of interviews with teachers, gives voice not only to an understanding of student-related ID variables but also to teachers’ reflections on their own cognitive, affective and behavioral processes. Taken together, the contrastive analysis of these two datasets yields interactional results that provide fresh insights into the language learning process and practical classroom applications.

Kata Csizér is Professor at Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. She is an Associate Editor of the Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching journal and Co-Editor of the monograph series Applied Linguistics in the 21st Century, published by Akadémiai Kiadó.

Dávid Smid is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Graz, Austria. He is Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Journal for the Psychology of Language Learning and his research interests include language learner psychology, teacher psychology and positive psychology.

Anna Zólyomi is Assistant Professor at Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. Her research explores individual differences, implicit and explicit learning and differentiated instruction and she is a scientific board member of the Ihlara Journal Educational Research.

Ágnes Albert is Assistant Professor at Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. She is an Associate Editor of the Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching journal and her research focuses on foreign language learning-related emotions.