Affect in English Language Learning: What Goes on Inside and Between

Although second language learning has been widely studied as the result of a set of cognitive processes (such as perception, attention, or memory), human cognition cannot be fully understood without paying attention to the affective dimension of learning. This chapter deals with the role of within-person and between-person affective factors in second language education. From a pedagogical point of view, traditional methodologies have generally considered that the learning process occurs only from the neck up. This belief favoured an approach to learning and learning material design based on memorization and mechanical repetition, with no other stimuli than the written or spoken word. However, the results of well-established research from diverse fields such as psycholinguistics, educational psychology, and neuroscience highlight the importance of more affective teaching for more effective learning. This perspective has gained particular currency after the global health crisis and the widespread advent of technology-based learning, emphasizing the emotional and relational dimensions that all meaningful learning processes require. Drawing on how affective factors influence second language acquisition and learning, this chapter proposes some methodological principles that can be applied to language teaching. Practical guidelines for conducting classroom research are also provided, such as applying these principles and exploiting multimodal stimuli to support and measure student motivation and positive emotions towards English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning.