Emotion in Language Acquisition

Naufal Halim Wijaya

15202241077
English Education
Faculty of Language and Arts
E-mail : naufal_255@yahoo.com

A. Abstract
This article is aimed to discover how emotions affect human in language learning.
Emotions itself is a complex psychological state that involves three distinct components:
a subjective experience, a physiological response, and a behavioral or expressive
response. In that reason, researcher wants to know how such physiological and behavioral
response can affect in language acquisition and its result.

B. Background
Feelings and emotions experienced by students are considered important in understanding
learning processes, student motivation and effective teaching (Pekrun, Goetz, Titz &
Perry, 2002; Meyer & Turner, 2006). Feelings and emotions are said to be a result of the
evaluation students make of particular situations while learning (Pekrun, 2000). These
evaluations are influenced by previous experiences, the social context and their personal
goals (Pekrun et al., 2002; Sansone & Thoman, 2005). This is of particular relevance to
the learning of a foreign language since students mostly come with previous positive or
negative experiences; sometimes the new learning environment is very different from
previous ones, and they may have a diversity of motives for engaging in foreign language
learning.

C. Discussion
a. Definition of Emotion
Emotion is any conscious experience characterized by intense mental activity and
a certain degree of pleasure or displeasure. Scientific discourse has drifted to
other meanings and there is no consensus on a definition. Emotion is often
intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation. In
some theories, cognition is an important aspect of emotion. Those acting
primarily on the emotions they are feeling may seem as if they are not thinking,
but mental processes are still essential, particularly in the interpretation of events.
For example, the realization of our believing that we are in a dangerous situation
and the subsequent arousal of our body's nervous system (rapid heartbeat and
breathing, sweating, muscle tension) is integral to the experience of our feeling
afraid. Other theories, however, claim that emotion is separate from and can
precede cognition.

Emotions are complex. According to some theories, they are states of feeling that
result in physical and psychological changes that influence our behavior. The
physiology of emotion is closely linked to arousal of the nervous system with
various states and strengths of arousal relating, apparently, to particular emotions.
Emotion is also linked to behavioral tendency. Extroverted people are more likely
to be social and express their emotions, while introverted people are more likely
to be more socially withdrawn and conceal their emotions. Emotion is often the
driving force behind motivation, positive or negative. According to other theories,
emotions are not causal forces but simply syndromes of components, which might
include motivation, feeling, behavior, and physiological changes, but no one of
these components is the emotion. Nor is the emotion an entity that causes these
components.

Emotions involve different components, such as subjective experience, cognitive

processes, expressive behavior, psychophysiological changes, and instrumental
behavior. At one time, academics attempted to identify the emotion with one of
the components: William James with a subjective experience, behaviorists with
instrumental behavior, psycho-physiologists with physiological changes, and so
on. More recently, emotion is said to consist of all the components. The different
components of emotion are categorized somewhat differently depending on the
 academic discipline. In psychology and philosophy, emotion typically includes a
subjective, conscious experience characterized primarily by psychophysiological
expressions, biological reactions, and mental states. A similar multi-componential
description of emotion is found in sociology. For example, Peggy Thoits
described emotions as involving physiological components, cultural or emotional
labels (anger, surprise, etc.), expressive body actions, and the appraisal of
situations and contexts.

Research on emotion has increased significantly over the past two decades with
many fields contributing including psychology, neuroscience, endocrinology,
medicine, history, sociology, and computer science. The numerous theories that
attempt to explain the origin, neurobiology, experience, and function of emotions
have only fostered more intense research on this topic. Current areas of research
in the concept of emotion include the development of materials that stimulate and
elicit emotion. In addition PET scans and fMRI scans help study the affective
processes in the brain.

"Emotions can be defined as a positive or negative experience that is associated

with a particular pattern of physiological activity." Emotions produce different
physiological, behavioral and cognitive changes. The original role of emotions
was to motivate adaptive behaviors that in the past would have contributed to the
survival of humans. Emotions are responses to significant internal and external
events.

b. Language Acquisition
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to
perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and
sentences to communicate. Language acquisition is one of the quintessential
human traits, because non-humans do not communicate by using language.
Language acquisition usually refers to first-language acquisition, which studies
infants' acquisition of their native language, whether that be spoken language or
signed language as a result of prelingual deafness. This is distinguished from
second-language acquisition, which deals with the acquisition (in both children
and adults) of additional languages. In addition to speech, reading and writing a
language with an entirely different script compounds the complexities of true
foreign language literacy.

Linguists who are interested in child language acquisition for many years question
how language is acquired, lidz et al. states "The question of how these structures
are acquired, then, is more properly understood as the question of how a learner
takes the surface forms in the input and converts them into abstract linguistic rules
and representations." So we know language acquisition involves structures, rules
and representation. The capacity to successfully use language requires one to
acquire a range of tools including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and
an extensive vocabulary. Language can be vocalized as in speech, or manual as in
sign. Human language capacity is represented in the brain. Even though human
language capacity is finite, one can say and understand an infinite number of
sentences, which is based on a syntactic principle called recursion. Evidence
suggests that every individual has three recursive mechanisms that allow
sentences to go indeterminately. These three mechanisms are: relativization,
complementation and coordination. Furthermore, there are actually two main
guiding principles in first-language acquisition, that is, speech perception always
precedes speech production and the gradually evolving system by which a child
learns a language is built up one step at a time, beginning with the distinction
between individual phonemes.

Neurocognitive research
According to several linguists, neurocognitive research has confirmed
many standards of language learning, such as: "learning engages the entire
person (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains), the human brain
seeks patterns in its searching for meaning, emotions affect all aspects of
learning, retention and recall, past experience always affects new learning,
the brain's working memory has a limited capacity, lecture usually results
in the lowest degree of retention, rehearsal is essential for retention,
practice [alone] does not make perfect, and each brain is unique" (Sousa,
2006, p. 274). In terms of genetics, the gene ROBO1 has been associated
with phonological buffer integrity or length.

Although it is difficult to determine without invasive measures which

exact parts of the brain become most active and important for language
acquisition, fMRI and PET technology has allowed for some conclusions
to be made about where language may be centered. Kuniyoshi Sakai
proposed, based on several neuroimaging studies, that there may be a
"grammar center", where language is primarily processed in the left lateral
premotor cortex (located near the pre central sulcus and the inferior frontal
sulcus). Additionally, these studies proposed that first language and
second-language acquisition may be represented differently in the cortex.
In a study conducted by Newman et al., the relationship between cognitive
neuroscience and language acquisition was compared through a
standardized test procedure involving native speakers of English and
native Spanish speakers who have all had a similar amount of exposure to
the English language (averaging about 26 years). Even the number of
times an examinee blinked was taken into account during the examination
process. It was concluded that the brain does in fact process languages
differently, but instead of it being directly related to proficiency levels, it
is more so about how the brain processes language itself.

During early infancy, language processing seems to occur over many areas
in the brain. However, over time, it gradually becomes concentrated into
two areas – Broca's area and Wernicke's area. Broca's area is in the left
frontal cortex and is primarily involved in the production of the patterns in
vocal and sign language. Wernicke's area is in the left temporal cortex and
is primarily involved in language comprehension. The specialization of
 these language centers is so extensive that damage to them results in a
critical condition known as aphasia.

c. Emotion on Language Acquisition

According to one dictionary, the earliest precursors of the word likely dates back
to the very origins of language. The modern word emotion is heterogeneous In
some uses of the word, emotions are intense feelings that are directed at someone
or something. On the other hand, emotion can be used to refer to states that are
mild (as in annoyed or content) and to states that are not directed at anything (as
in anxiety and depression). One line of research thus looks at the meaning of the
word emotion in everyday language and this usage is rather different from that in
academic discourse. Another line of research asks about languages other than
English, and one interesting finding is that many languages have a similar but not
identical term. In anthropology, an inability to express or perceive emotion is
sometimes referred to as alexithymia.

In a research that conducted by Mariza G. Méndez López and Argelia Peña

Aguilar from University of Quintana Roo entitled Emotions as Learning
Enhancers of Foreign Language Learning Motivation tells that there are two main
effects of emotions that affect people in language learning which is positive
emotion and negative emotion. Although its name is positive, positive emotions
may bring negative effect on learner language learning and vice versa.

From the research that conducted by Mariza and Argelia, the learners consider
both positive and negative emotions were of great importance for their language
learning process because emotions encouraged them not to quit their language
classes and gave them the drive to overcome those academic problems they were
facing, as they reported: ... emotions are of great importance, without them I
would have been a mediocre student...leaving everything half-assed, and thanks to
them I am still at university. I consider that there are not good or bad emotions ...
good as well as bad ones ended up being good because without the bad ones I
would not have had the push to make my best effort at university. (Enrique,
Interview)

From this case, emotions were positive because they helped them think about
their role as language learners, made them realize those areas they needed to work
on and, most importantly, made them reflect upon their responsibility as language
learners.

i. Positive Effects of Positive Emotions

Learner experienced positive emotions that allowed them to have feelings
of enhanced self-efficacy. These feelings allowed them to attest their
language advancement, which contributed to removing their insecurity and
giving them confidence, as expressed by some learner: ...for instance when
teachers told me something good about my performance in class, I felt
really happy ... I was so enthusiastic all day in classes. You feel great ...
you feel like participating more in class because you know you are doing
things right. (Akira, Interview)

As the term advanced, learner felt more confident because they were able
to see that their efforts were paying off, especially in examination marks.
Confidence allowed learner to take some risks in their language learning
process and some started to refer to mistakes as something that they have
to go through in order to be able to speak a foreign language. Learner also
started looking for ways to introduce phrases or vocabulary they had heard
on TV shows in English in order to make their oral and written output
more natural. These small decisions allowed them to reenergize and
helped them to keep motivated.

ii. Negative Effects of Positive Emotions

Learners experienced feelings of self-efficacy after completing tasks
 successfully. They recognize that after a positive emotion they did nothing
to improve their language learning process: Well ... a negative emotion
leads you to analysis … happiness … um, there is nothing to analyse there
because you are happy as you obtained what you wanted, but negative
experiences are the ones we need to think about, reflect on and look for
the positive side of. You have to look for that positive side in order to be
more proactive or a winner, we can say in that respect. (Jimmy,
Interview)

Learner reported that after a positive emotion there was nothing to do but
enjoy the feeling, so they did not think about it. This is the only negative
effect positive emotions had on learners’ motivation.

iii. Negative Effects of Negative Emotions

Negative emotions were frequently experienced by the group of students
who’s the subject of Mariza and Argelia research. There were different
factors that triggered negative emotions such as: teachers’ marking
systems, feedback approaches and learning environment. For the first time
students were facing being spoken to in English for the whole class period,
and doubts about their degree choice started to emerge from the very first
week of the term. Half of the students (nine) revealed in their personal
narratives having wanted to study something different but, because of
financial reasons, they had had to choose a degree at the local university.
This fact made them doubtful about being in the ELT program.Feeling
unsure of being able to finish the degree caused insecurity in students,
which contributed to their fears.

This perception was magnified by the presence of an advanced group of

 students in class. By looking at this group’s performance, students realised
the great gap between them and the advanced group. Students’ confidence
deteriorated because they started to make comparisons with more
proficient learners in the group. The language proficiency difference
contributed to a lack of group cohesion, which made the learning
environment very ineffective.

Lack of group cohesion contributed to students’ feelings that they were

not allowed space and time to practice. This feeling led them to think they
were not making any progress and perceived their pronunciation to be not
as good as that of their classmates. This constrained their participation in
class because they knew that some classmates would mock them. Fearing
the teacher’s feedback and their peers’ mockery led students to stop trying
in class. This made some students feel angry with themselves but they
reported that sometimes their fear of mockery was higher than their desire
to speak fluently. Although students reported that being afraid of speaking
English and having a fear of their peers’ mocking were constant feelings
throughout the term, they also revealed, importantly, that the effects of
these events were short-lived because they could not spend all the time
recalling a specific negative event.

iv. Positive Effects of Negative Emotions

Fear, worry and sadness were the three main negative emotions students
experienced during the first third of the term of the research. Students
reported being afraid of being laughed at while participating in class
activities, worried about not being able to understand everything the
teachers were explaining, and sad about their lack of vocabulary which
restricted their participation in class. The language proficiency difference
in the group pushed low proficient learners to develop their language
abilities. It was because of this that students started to develop a sense of
responsibility towards their language learning process, which led them to
 develop learning and motivational strategies from the very first week of
the term.

Students embraced negative emotions as learning opportunities because all

of them referred to these negative events in class as a way of
understanding what they were doing wrong and how to improve on that
particular skill.

D. Conclusion
From this study, we learn that emotions are giving advantage and disadvantage in
language learning. Both positive and negative emotions also have two sides effect that
can motivate learners in language acquisition or stumble them in the process. However,
we can separate emotions in human body since it is what make us human, make us to felt
others and ourselves.

E. Reference
López and Aguilar, Emotions as Learning Enhancers of Foreign Language Learning
Motivation (2012)
https://ielanguages.com/language-acquisition.html
http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/emo/
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-emotions-2795178