L2 or L3? foreign language enjoyment and proficiency

Abstract

Enjoyment is among the achievement emotions encountered in school and university settings. While often identified with a sense of belonging not necessarily connected with learning (Lumby, 2011), foreign language enjoyment (FLE) in SLA has been found to correlate with teachers’ professional and affective skills, and the existence of a supportive peer group. The risk involved with meeting the challenges of the SLA process induces both private and social feelings of FLE (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2016). This study hypothesizes that a good command of language may be a source of elevated levels of enjoyment, because greater language proficiency is connected with greater control perception, especially when learners attribute value to the language studied. For this reason, it was expected that L2 enjoyment would be stronger in comparison to L3 enjoyment. The research study described herein included 47 English (L2) philology students studying German as their L3, and 30 German (L2) philology students studying English (L3) at Opole University, Poland. The results revealed significantly higher L2 enjoyment in both groups, compared to their respective L3 levels. These findings can be mostly attributed to the subjective control proficient L2 students have over their linguistic actions, and the subjective value of the language. Aside from that, the greater levels of L3 enjoyment of the German philology students could be attributed to their social bonds that play a significant role in the formation of FLE.