The dynamic relationship between enjoyment and anxiety in monologue communication tasks of Arab female EFL undergraduate students: an idiodynamic approach

Foreign language learners experience fluctuations in their levels of enjoyment and anxiety during communication tasks as they navigate communication challenges. These emotional surges can impact cognitive resources and speech-processing ability. However, there is scant empirical evidence on the associations between emotions at the personal level during foreign language learning (FLL) communication task performances. To address this gap, the present study utilized the idiodynamic approach to investigate the relationship between enjoyment and anxiety in monologue tasks performed by Arab Female undergraduate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Participants rated their emotions on a per-second basis after watching a video recording of their task performances and were interviewed about the reasons for fluctuations in their ratings. The study found that the negative relationship between anxiety and enjoyment varied from strong to moderate across 30 segments of speech per person. The emotions of anxiety and enjoyment were analyzed through triangulation of ratings, prompted recall interviews, and performance data. As a result of this investigation, four distinct sets of factors that affected these emotions were identified: Task execution (such as pre-task preparation and time constraints), task layout (including its structure and theme), cognitive-linguistic factors (such as transient disruptions in conceptualization and formulation speech processes), and performance measure (including assessment of one’s own linguistic proficiency).