Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching

Why this special issue?

As an emotional process, language education is fraught with various positive and negative emotions. Positive emotions that are experienced by language teachers and learners promote their well-being and facilitate the language education process. Negative emotions, on the other hand, endanger language teachers’ and learners’ mental condition and hinder the language education mechanism. In fact, those who experience adverse emotions such as aggression, anxiety, apprehension, frustration, exhaustion, boredom, and burnout are more susceptible to mental disorders. Given that mental disorders negatively influence language teachers’ and learners’ classroom performance, factors instilling unpleasant feelings in their minds must be identified. Simply put, factors predicting language teachers’ and learners’ negative emotions need to be widely studied.

To address this necessity, several educational researchers worldwide have delved into the internal and external causes of negative emotions in the mainstream education settings. Likewise, some language scholars have studied the sources of negative emotions in language education environments. Nonetheless, studying the determinants of negative emotions among language teachers and learners is still in its infancy. Furthermore, as the review of the pertinent literature revealed, almost all previous inquiries employed traditional research methods in exploring the predictors of language teachers’ and learners’ negative emotions. Given the complex and dynamic nature of classroom emotions, examining negative emotions and their potential determinants in language classes through innovative research approaches seems more logical. Considering this, in the present special collection, we intend to invite applied linguists and language researchers around the world to scrutinize the causes or predictors of language teachers' and learners' negative emotions through emerging research methodologies.

Overview of Proposed Topics:

In the current special issue, we intend to bring together research studies exploring the personal, interpersonal, and situational factors that moderate or reduce negative emotions among language teachers and learners. We welcome original research, reviews, commentaries, case reports, and meta-analyses. Regarding the design of studies in this area, they can be longitudinal, qualitative exploration of a few cases in detail, experimental, large-scale quantitative exploration of correlational or cause-effect relationships, or mixed methods research studies. To examine language teachers’ and learners’ negative emotions and their interplay with personal, interpersonal, and environmental factors, researchers should take advantage of innovative research methods such as nested ecosystem model, ecological momentary assessment, time-series analysis, retrodictive qualitative modeling, Q-methodology, latent profile analysis, and idiodynamic method.

1. Impact of learning atmosphere on language learners’ anger, apprehension, demotivation, anxiety, and boredom

We are interested in receiving submissions on the potential influences of the learning environment on language learners’ unfavorable emotions like anger, apprehension, demotivation, anxiety, and boredom. Papers will examine whether the learning environment can reduce negative or undesirable emotions among language learners.

2. Influence of organizational climate on language teachers’ dissatisfaction, emotional exhaustion, and burnout

We welcome submissions on the direct or indirect impacts of organizational climate on language instructors’ negative emotions. Studies will evaluate the role organizational climate in decreasing language instructors’ negative emotions like dissatisfaction, emotional exhaustion, and burnout.

3. Role of language teachers’ personal characteristics in their job burnout

We also welcome submissions that delve into the role of language teachers’ personal characteristics in their job burnout. Inquiries will investigate whether language teachers’ personal traits such as resilience, flexibility, patience, self-esteem, or self-efficacy can decrease the rate of burnout among language teachers.

4. Role of language teachers’ professional traits in their psychological and emotional disengagement

We are also interested in receiving submissions on the potential role of language teachers’ professional qualities in reducing their psychological and emotional disengagement. Papers will assess the degree to which job-related characteristics can lead language teachers to higher levels of psychological and emotional engagement.

5. Influence of language learners’ misconducts on their teachers’ attrition

We are looking for submissions that explore the effects of language learners’ misbehaviors on their teachers’ attrition. Studies will try to find out whether language teachers' attrition depends upon their pupils’ misbehaviors in classroom contexts.

6. Role of language learners’ personal characteristics in their academic disengagement

We are especially interested in submissions that probe the possible role of language learners’ personal traits in their academic disengagement. Papers will examine the extent to which language learners’ personal qualities like motivation, self-efficacy, adaptability, and patience can predict their engagement in academic environments.

7. Interplay between teacher communication behaviors and language learners’ negative emotions

We also aim to collect empirical studies assessing the associations between teacher communication behaviors and language learners’ undesirable feelings. Papers will study language learners’ undesirable feelings in relation to teacher communication behaviors like caring, confirmation, credibility, clarity, and closeness.

 

 

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following: 

• Impact of learning atmosphere on language learners’ anger, apprehension, demotivation, anxiety, and boredom;
• Influence of organizational climate on language teachers’ dissatisfaction, emotional exhaustion, and burnout;
• Role of language teachers’ personal characteristics in their job burnout;
• Role of language teachers’ professional traits in their psychological and emotional disengagement;
• Influence of language learners’ misconducts on their teachers’ attrition;
• Role of language learners’ personal characteristics in their academic disengagement;
• Interplay between teacher communication behaviors and language learners’ negative emotions.

Preparing Your Paper

• Should be written with the following elements in the following order: title page; abstract; keywords; main text introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion; acknowledgments; declaration of interest statement; references; appendices (as appropriate); table(s) with caption(s) (on individual pages); figures; figure captions (as a list)
• Should be no more than 7000 words, inclusive of:
  • Abstract
  • Tables
  • References
  • Figure or table captions
  • Footnotes
  • Endnotes
• Should contain a structured abstract of 250 words.

Important Dates:

Submission deadline: 31/7/2024

Publication: January 2025

 

Note: Please select this special issue while submitting to our special issue. 

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