Emotionality in L2 teacher discourse: Implications for teacher education and future research directions

Abstract

As research in teacher emotions demonstrates, the affectivity of teacher behaviour in an L2/FL classroom context is one of the most significant factors contributing to appropriate interaction, classroom dynamics and, as a consequence, student language achievement and well-being (Gabryś-Barker Studies in Second Lang Learn Teach 4(2):301–325, 2016). Teacher affect—be it subconscious or controlled through emotional management and emotional labour (Benesch in Considering emotions in critical English teaching, Routledge, New York/London 2012)—is manifested in all the procedures and actions employed in the classroom. This paper presents a discussion of FL teacher discourse understood both in its verbal aspect (teacher talk) and also in teacher’s non-verbal behaviours towards students (teacher immediacy, eye contact) from the perspective of its affectivity. The article points to the need for more ample research. Insofar as research in this area is not very extensive, FL teacher training programmes also hardly ever instruct pre-service teachers in, or raise their awareness of, the significance of emotionality in a FL teacher’s discourse. Some ideas for improvement of the latter are put forward in this article.