Enjoyment in the Foreign Language Teaching Environment: Saudi Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

Introduction. Positive emotions are crucial for facilitating the learning process in foreign language (FL) classes. It has been well established that the emotion of enjoyment highly influences students and teachers in language learning environments and plays a key role in motivation. Goals. The first objective of this study was to investigate the foreign language enjoyment (FLE) levels of FL teachers in Saudi Arabia. The second objective was to investigate the level of enjoyment felt by these teachers when they were FL students. Third, gender differences with regard to the level of enjoyment were studied. Finally, the sources of enjoyment were explored. Thirty-six teachers from different educational institutions in Saudi Arabia were surveyed. Results. The results demonstrated that the participants experienced high levels of enjoyment when teaching FL classes; however, their enjoyment levels were significantly higher when they were FL students. A positive atmosphere at the workplace, students’ excitement about language learning, and the joy of passing knowledge to others served as sources of enjoyment among the FL teachers. In terms of their experiences as FL students, FLE stemmed from their own FL teachers’ attitudes as well as the process of learning a language applicable to real daily life. Gender was found to be only a mediator, not a predictor, of participants’ enjoyment as there were no statistically significant differences between male and female teachers. Conclusions. Thus, the following conclusions can be drawn based on the study. First, teachers must promote positive classroom environments by perfecting their general attitudes as much as possible to enhance the feeling of enjoyment among learners. This, in turn, will make the FL learning journey effortless and help students reach their learning goals and objectives. Furthermore, in pre-course sessions, a brief introduction that clarifies the importance of English as a foreign language is highly recommended. This will help students recognise the possible outcomes of their learning and enable them to enjoy their experiences of learning EFL. Second, institutions – i.e. schools and universities – that offer opportunities to teach EFL should provide positive working environments for their FL teachers. Institutions must also draw teachers’ attention to their role as vital knowledge resources for their students.