Emotions are Motivating

Abstract

Emotions just might be the most important motivation system that human beings possess (Izard, 2007). Emotions are present from birth and can be activated at any moment. Intense emotions such as terror have the potential to overwhelm the mind and body and are therefore potent motivators (Tomkins, 1970). More subtle emotions arise continuously as reactions to ongoing events, memories from the past, and anticipation of the future (Baumgartner, Pieters, & Bagozzi, 2008), guiding thoughts and behaviour in ways that might be consciously obvious or relatively unnoticed. It is now widely accepted that emotions and cognition are intricately blended together into the motivation system (Panksepp, 2003). Given their ubiquity and importance, it is surprising that emotions have not previously enjoyed a place of greater prominence in the literature on motivation for language learning. In psychology, during the era of behaviourism, emotions essentially were banished as theoretically irrelevant and epiphenomenal, presumed to have no causal role in behaviour. Later, as behaviourism was supplanted by cognitive information-processing theories, emotions were something of an afterthought, an inconvenience muddying the logical waters of the thoughtful mind (Keltner & Lerner, 2010). In recent years, however, emotions have been taking on a more prominent role in theories emerging from diverse fields including neuroscience (Damásio, 1994), behavioural economics (Kahneman, 2011), and positive psychology (Fredrickson, 2013; also see Gregersen, this volume). If psychology has underappreciated emotion, the SLA literature has been even more neglectful of the power of emotion to motivate, to energize action, and to guide behavior. There are only a handful of studies directly addressing the role of emotion in language learning, with one notable exception—a good deal of research has emerged on language anxiety (see Dewaele, Petrides, & Furnham, 2008; Gkonou, Daubney, & Dewaele, 2017; Gregersen & Horwitz, 2002; Gregersen, MacIntyre, & Meza, 2014; Horwitz & Young, 1991). Facilitating the advancement of knowledge about the intricate connections between emotion and motivation in SLA, the goal of the present chapter is, therefore, threefold. First, we review core concepts in the study of emotion to provide a grounding for understanding how emotions act to motivate thoughts and actions. Second, we examine studies of emotions in SLA. And third, we look at the possible future of research in L2 motivation and the prominent role that emotions likely will play.