Investigating metaemotions as the predictors of willingness to communicate, anxiety, and enjoyment among EFL learners

Metaemotions, described as secondary emotions about one's own primary emotions, are considered as the antecedent of systematic and purposeful behaviours in learning and education. Research in other disciplines suggests that meta-emotions are related to emotion regulation and emotional experiences, however, their relationship with the psychological factors involved in learning a second language is not sufficiently studied. To fill this gap, the present study investigated the interrelations between metaemotions, willingness to communicate, anxiety, and enjoyment. To this end, 346 Iranian intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners were recruited to participate in the study. The participants responded to questionnaires on willingness to communicate, metaemotions, enjoyment, and anxiety were administered. The results of path analysis revealed that different meta-emotions could predict anxiety and enjoyment differently. Besides, significant correlations were found between meta-emotions and willingness to communicate. The suggestions for future research in the field are presented.