How Learners’ Heterogeneity in Proficiency May Disrupt Their Positive Emotions and Progress in Three Levels of English Foreign Language Classes

ABSTRACT This cross‐sectional quantitative study focuses on the effect of practices in the educational context such as streaming on the relationships between foreign language learner emotions and proficiency. Participants were 413 Mexican English Foreign Language learners in a higher education institution in Mexico. The absence of streaming meant that learners’ proficiency levels were similar in the lower‐intermediate, intermediate and high‐intermediate classes. A MANOVA and two series of ANOVAs showed that learners’ proficiency and class level significantly shaped Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA), Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE), and Foreign Language Boredom (FLB). Higher proficiency was linked to lower FLCA but was ‐surprisingly‐ unrelated to FLE and FLB. Higher class level was linked to higher FLE, lower FLB but had no effect on FLCA. These patterns differ from the usual patterns of increased enjoyment and reduced boredom in more advanced classes—where learners are typically more proficient. We speculate that our findings diverge from previous research because the lack of streaming may have caused a misalignment between learners’ proficiency level and their class level which could have resulted in inappropriate levels of challenge for a large proportion of students. We conclude with some pedagogical implications.