정서 체험이 한국 대학생들의 영어 학습 동기에 미치는 영향: 영어 학습 회고록 분석

The influence of emotional experience on Korean college students’ English learning motivation: An analysis of students’ reflective autobiography of English learning

Based on Vygotsky’s concept of perezhivaniya or emotional experiences, this research focuses onKorean university students’ English-learning motivation by analyzing qualitative, reflectiveautobiographic essays. The participants were 40 undergraduate students enrolled in an Englishmajor class and were required to submit a reflective essay on the fluctuation of their L2 learningmotivation and its related, memorable episodes. Their data were analyzed using the unit ofemotional experience and the reiterative reading method by Miles and Huberman. As a result, fivemajor themes were extracted: situational context, learning-related context, human factor, emotionalexperience, and their appraisal of emotional experience. The analysis revealed that while individualpatterns of motivation varied, a consistent decline in overall motivation was observed as studentsprogressed from elementary through middle to high school. This study argues that the learners’appraisal of their emotional experience, not the experience per se, was the crucial factor in realizingthe level of their L2 learning motivation. Additionally, the study indicates that the accumulation ofsuccessful experience in students’ L2 learning results in positive emotional appraisals and enhancestheir levels of L2 motivation. These findings imply the necessity to focus on positive appraisals ofobjective experience to enhance the nature of L2 learning motivation.