Teachers’ emotions and beliefs in second language teaching: Implications for teacher education

Abstract

Studies on language teacher beliefs have long indicated that in order to better understand teacher beliefs, we need to look at their connections with emotions (Borg 2006). Researchers in fields such as social psychology (Frijda et al. 2000) and education (Rosiek 2003; Gill and Hardin 2014) have pointed out how emotions shape and are shaped by beliefs. These suggest also that emotions and beliefs are fundamentally interconnected in individuals’ decision-making processes, with emotions providing the necessary impetus for change and beliefs deciding the course of actions. In order to have a complete view of second language teachers’ beliefs, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of these fundamental connections. However, in applied linguistics, there have been only a few studies that have explored this interrelationship. In this chapter, we review studies about emotions and beliefs in second language teaching highlighting their main points, theoretical framework and main results. Our aim is to provide an overview of the ways in which emotions and beliefs are interconnected and how this understanding can be used to support language teacher development. We suggest implications for research on teachers’ beliefs and emotions. We conclude with guidelines for how teacher educators can work with student teachers’ beliefs and emotions.