The emotional turn in applied linguistics and TESOL: Significance, challenges and prospects

Abstract

The fields of applied linguistics and TESOL have over the past two decades increasingly recognised the limitations of purely cognitive approaches to language learning and teaching, first with more socially informed approaches and then by a related turn to emotion. This chapter traces the growing awareness of the role of emotion in both applied linguistics and TESOL through a critical account of the avenues of enquiry into emotion, and the ways in which topics such as motivation and beliefs have been reworked from a more affectively informed perspective. Issues of concept and definition are explored together with the main theoretical frameworks used to enquire into emotion. The chapter then draws on recent research to illustrate the significance and diversity of a number of key research directions including anxiety in language learning, the contribution of positive emotion, the role of the teacher and the classroom environment and emotion and multilingualism. The chapter argues that the turn to emotion has transformed our understandings of language learning, language teaching and language use, and concludes by identifying gaps in the field and areas for future enquiry together with challenges in translating research findings into both policy and practice.