Changes in Language Learners’ Affect: A Complex Dynamic Systems Theory Perspective

Abstract This study investigated changes in motivation, self‐efficacy beliefs, and a range of emotions, including enjoyment, hope, pride, curiosity, anxiety, boredom, apathy, confusion, and shame, from a complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) perspective over a 2‐year period in the Hungarian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. Using the same questionnaire, we collected data four times throughout 4 semesters from 101 participants studying English in two Hungarian high schools. For data analysis, we used latent growth curve modeling (LGCM) to detect the group‐level changes in learners’ motivation, self‐efficacy, and emotions. We also employed dynamic cluster analysis to identify trends in learners’ trajectories regarding these variables. In our panel data, linear models described the data well concerning the ought‐to second language (L2) self, language learning experience, boredom, apathy, and confusion, and for enjoyment, curiosity, anxiety, and shame, nonlinear models had the best fit. We could also identify trajectories depicting attractor states and learner paths that featured influences of perturbations.