Emotion, motivation and willingness to communicate in the language learning experience: A comparative case study of two adult ESOL learners

The present multiple case study is situated within the growing wave of research on the role of emotions in second language learning. It focuses more specifically on the relationship between emotion, motivation, willingness to communicate and the second language context. The participants were two adult learners of English as a second or other language (ESOL) in the United Kingdom: Aurora and Emilie (pseudonyms). Semi-structured interviews with the learners and their tutors, conducted face to face, were complemented with lesson observations over an academic term to achieve an in-depth understanding of the relationship between emotion, motivation, willingness to communicate and the learning context. Enjoyment and anxiety were the most salient emotions that emerged; however, the sources of these emotions were slightly different for the learners and were linked to the type of classroom activity and interlocutors. Both participants were highly motivated language learners because of their enjoyable learning experiences rather than by a vision of future English-using selves. While enjoyment appeared to strongly shape willingness to communicate in the classroom for both learners, anxiety hindered out-of-class communication in one of the students. The results suggest that the relationship between language learning emotions, motivation and willingness to communicate is linked to the learning context but that the interaction between different variables is unique to each learner. Implications for research and pedagogy are presented.