Foreign language anxiety and enjoyment concurrently shape pragmatic and grammatical awareness in learners of English as a foreign language-how communicative context modulates their relationship

An intriguing question in research on emotions in L2 learning is whether the effects of positive emotions on L2 outcomes outweigh the influence of negative ones. This study examined how anxiety and enjoyment concurrently shape learners' pragmatic and grammatical awareness in an EFL context. Participants (N = 119) were university students at B1 level of English proficiency. They completed judgement tests of pragmatic and grammatical awareness and three questionnaires assessing their foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA), input, processing, and output anxiety (IPOA), and foreign language enjoyment (FLE). The results of correlation and hierarchical regression analyses showed that anxiety and enjoyment significantly and differentially predict young adults' pragmatic and grammatical awareness. The findings showed that the facilitating effects of enjoyment outweighed anxiety effects in pragmatic awareness tests, but the debilitating influence of anxiety overshadowed enjoyment effects in grammatical awareness tests. Moreover, while enjoyment facilitated learners' pragmatic awareness in both simple and complex communicative contexts, both types of anxiety (FLCA and IPOA) had debilitating effects on performance in the complex communicative condition that imposed heavier cognitive and linguistic demands on the participants. The findings are discussed in light of the psycholinguistic effects of emotions on cognitive processing in a foreign language. Une question fascinante dans la recherche sur les & eacute;motions dans l'apprentissage de language etrangeres/seconde (L2) est de savoir si les effets des & eacute;motions positives sur les r & eacute;sultats en L2 surpassent l'influence des & eacute;motions n & eacute;gatives. Cette & eacute;tude a examin & eacute; comment l'anxi & eacute;t & eacute; et l' enjoyment fa & ccedil;onnent simultan & eacute;ment la conscience pragmatique et grammaticale des etudiants dans un context d'apprentissage de l'anglais language etrangere (EFL). Les participants (N = 119) & eacute;taient des & eacute;tudiants universitaires de niveau B1 en anglais. Ils ont pass & eacute; des tests d'& eacute;valuation de la conscience pragmatique et grammaticale et trois questionnaires & eacute;valuant leur anxi & eacute;t & eacute; en classe de langue & eacute;trang & egrave;re (FLCA), leur anxi & eacute;t & eacute; li & eacute;e aux processus cognitifs de la reception et de la production (IPOA) et leur enjoyment en langue & eacute;trang & egrave;re (FLE). Les r & eacute;sultats des analyses de corr & eacute;lation et de r & eacute;gression hi & eacute;rarchique ont montr & eacute; que l'anxi & eacute;t & eacute; et l'enjoyment pr & eacute;disent de facon significative et diff & eacute;rentielle la conscience pragmatique et grammaticale des jeunes adultes. Les r & eacute;sultats ont montr & eacute; que les effets facilitateurs de l'enjoyment l'emportaient sur les effets de l'anxi & eacute;t & eacute; dans les tests de conscience pragmatique, mais que l'influence d & eacute;bilitante de l'anxi & eacute;t & eacute; surpassait les effets de l'enjoyment dans les tests de conscience grammaticale. De plus, tandis que le plaisir facilitait la conscience pragmatique des etudiants dans les contextes communicatifs simples et complexes, les deux types d'anxi & eacute;t & eacute; (FLCA et IPOA) avaient des effets d & eacute;bilitants sur la performance dans la condition communicative complexe qui imposait des exigences cognitives et linguistiques plus lourdes aux participants. Language learners often experience both positive and negative emotions related to learning and using their foreign languages. An intriguing question is whether positive emotions can outweigh the effects of negative ones. If someone enjoys learning English, but they also feel anxious while using English in certain situations, which emotion will influence their English competence more: enjoyment or anxiety? This study set out to answer this question by looking at how well German learners of English can spot grammar mistakes in English sentences and decide if the sentences are polite or impolite after reading a short description about the situation in which the sentences occurred. We found that enjoyment helps learners excel in finding politeness mistakes in the sentences; however, anxiety weakens their ability to catch grammatical errors. These results show us that positive and negative emotions push language learners to focus on different aspects of language (correct grammar vs. socially accepted politeness) and that those who find joy in learning languages may also be better communicators even if they experience some anxiety while using the foreign language.