Perezhivaniya in L2 learning and motivation from a sociocultural perspective: A qualitative analysis of retrospective L2 learning essays

Highlights

• This article focuses on L2 learners’ previous learning experience and their motivational fluctuations.

• Perezhivaniya are conceptualized as specific emotional experiences.

• L2 motivation arises once perezhivaniya are appraised by a learner.

• Self- and other-regulation and the expansion of the ZPD through perezhivaniya are discussed.

Abstract

This article focuses on the role of perezhivaniya, or “emotional experiences,” in understanding L2 learning motivation. In creating, maintaining, and possibly terminating L2 learners' ideal or ought-to L2 selves (Dörnyei, 2009), not all L2-related experiences but only emotional ones having personal, subjective meaning are primarily involved. By using a grounded theory approach, 103 pre-service teachers' previous L2 learning experience and their motivational fluctuations from preschool to high school were analyzed. The motigraph of students showed that early childhood English education made a noticeable difference. The qualitative data proved the importance of early English input, the role of significant relationships, and the synergistic effect of emotional experiences and their positive appraisal. This article argues that L2 learners' accumulation of emotional experiences and their appraisal of those experiences are crucial to recognizing their L2 selves and enhancing the level of L2 learning motivation. The issue of self- and other-regulation and the expansion of the zone of proximal development through perezhivaniya are also discussed.

Introduction

This article focuses on the role of perezhivaniya, or “emotional experiences,” in understanding second language (L2) learning motivation.¹ The concept of perezhivaniya in the Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory (SCT) of mind (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006; Swain et al., 2010; Vygotsky, 1987, Vygotsky, 1994) has been undertheorized. Even with the same L2 learning experience, L2 learners understand and appraise it differently. Moreover, as learners reach cognitive maturity, they can imbue the same past experience with significantly different meanings at different stages in their life (Vygotsky, 1935/1994). As Dörnyei (2019a) acknowledged recently, in the field of L2 learning motivation, the L2 learning experience has not been actively investigated, compared with its importance in explaining the different creation of L2 learners' ideal and ought-to L2 selves. Unless we systemically investigate the nature and role of the L2 learning experience, we may not find adequate instructional advice for individual learners (Al-Hoorie et al., 2021).

The concept of perezhivaniya from the Vygotskian SCT is in fact difficult to translate in English (Blunden, 2016). Although it may not retain its original meaning, this Russian term is often translated as “emotional experiences” (Mok, 2017) or “emotional responses elevated by one's imagination” (Smagorinsky, 2011). As Lantolf and Swain (2019) highlighted, Vygotsky's SCT has often been interpreted as a cognitive approach due to the Western cognitivism in social science; however, in the last few years of his life, Vygotsky delved into the influence of emotional experiences on the human psyche (e.g., Vygotsky, 1935/1994). In the present article, it is assumed that the L2 learning experience, one of the crucial elements in L2 motivation theories, particularly in Dörnyei, 2005, Dörnyei, 2009 L2 Motivational Self-System (L2MSS), can be augmented by incorporating the Vygotskian concept of perezhivaniya. Research on the interface between the L2MSS and SCT has not been extensively conducted to date, and only Kim, 2009, Kim, 2012a seminal papers are available. Moreover, research on the L2MSS-SCT interface did not highlight the role of the L2 learning experiences; only the ideal L2 self and ought-to L2 self, two other components in the L2MSS, were treated. In reviewing the concept of perezhivaniya, this article argues that individual L2 learners' interpretation and appraisal of their emotional experiences in learning an L2 are the crucial factors in creating and consolidating one's ideal L2 self and, consequently, enhancing one's L2 learning motivation.

By analyzing retrospective L2 learning essays written by 103 Korean pre-service teachers, this article appraises the significance of emotional experience in L2 learning motivation and refines the concept of perezhivaniya. Hence, this article will show how these experiences can facilitate or hinder the learning process, eventually supporting or deterring healthy mental growth among young adults.

To this end, two research questions are formulated as follows:

• What is the interconnection between L2 learning experience in L2 motivation theories and Vygotsky's perezhivaniya (i.e., emotional experiences)?

• From the perspective of perezhivaniya, what is the effect of L2 learning experience on the ideal L2 self?