English-medium instruction learners’ enjoyment and anxiety: a quasi-experimental research

While foreign language enjoyment and anxiety are attracting renewed attention in learner psychology research, little attention has been paid to contextualising the two emotions within the increasingly popular educational context of English-medium instruction. To examine the impact of this educational approach on learners’ foreign language enjoyment and anxiety and to explore the episodes related to these emotions, the study adopted a quasi-experimental design and mixed-methods approach. Two first-year university classes were recruited (experiment group, n = 45; comparison group, n = 39). ANCOVAs revealed the educational approach’s effect on post-test enjoyment and prepost enjoyment variances and its effect on post-test anxiety and prepost anxiety variances. Meanwhile, qualitative content analysis indicated the episodes in relation to which learners’ enjoyment and anxiety arose. Pedagogical implications were drawn.