The inter-relatedness of emotion, language learning and identity

Abstract

This paper explores the role of emotions and corporeal sensations in the experiences of foreign language learning and identity of one Canadian adult learner of Portuguese. Emotions in second and foreign language learning have become the subject of growing interest since other perspectives other than the cognitive have been included in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research. Yet, much of the recent literature on the relationship of emotions, foreign language learning, and identity continues to reflect the experiences of English language learners, and has also paid little attention to whether learners develop and include an awareness of and an attention to the contribution of corporeal sensations to their experiences of foreign language learning, and identity enactment in the foreign language. This paper draws on concepts of sociocultural theory and construals-of-the-self to understand the learner’s perceptions of her experiences learning Portuguese, and of her identity-related experiences in this language with a focus on emotions. Findings suggest that the learner’s conceptualisations of her target identity were imagined and constructed also through corporeal sensations that she experienced and regarded as being characteristic of her target language identities. In addition, a connection between past subjective experiences and the learner’s perceptions of foreign language identities was also found. With this understanding, this paper calls for future research to expand on this attention to these emotional aspects that, in addition to linguistic ones, may constitute learners’ aspirations and ideas of target language identities. Key-words: identity, foreign language, Portuguese, corporeal sensations, emotions