doi: 10.15503/jecs20192.170.

188

170 Dynamics

Maju

Karita Foreign Language learning

and teaching Enjoyment:
Laura
Teachers’ Perspectives

Ewelina Mierzwa
Department of Applied Linguistics,Opole University,
pl. Kopernika 11, 45-040 Opole, Poland
E-mail address: [email protected]
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2653-7768

Abstract
Aim. The primary objective of the present study was to investigate the level of For-
eign Language (FL) learning Enjoyment and Foreign Language (FL) teaching Enjoyment expe-
rienced by FL teachers in Poland. The secondary aim was to investigate the sources of
enjoyment.
Methods. The informants of the study were Polish educators teaching foreign lan-
guages at different educational levels. Standard descriptive and inferential statistics
were used to report means, median and standard deviation for sociodemographic and
baseline characteristics of the sample. The t-Test and one-way ANOVA were used to
show mean differences in the score data.
Results. The results of the study revealed that teachers experienced a relatively high
level of both FL learning Enjoyment and FL teaching Enjoyment, regardless of independent
variables (e.g. place of residence, level of education, language being taught). The result
revealed a signiÀcant gender difference in FL learning Enjoyment in favour of females,
while there was no gender difference in FL teaching Enjoyment. A qualitative analysis of
participants’ emotional experiences in the FL classroom conÀrmed previous research
on FLE to a certain degree. That is, FLE is more related to learner-internal and teacher-
speciÀc variables than to the behaviour of peers and the atmosphere in the classroom.
Conclusion. The originality of the present study lies in the choice of a mixed-meth-
ods approach (qualitative and quantitative data) using a relatively large sample in a
Àeld characterised by case studies. To the best of my knowledge, this is the Àrst study
on foreign language enjoyment among teachers within the Polish educational context.
Key Words: foreign language enjoyment, foreign language teachers, enjoyment,
SLA, gender differences, positive psychology

Introduction

A cademic success, or lack of it, may arouse a plethora of different emo-

tions in students, which in consequence may affect their performance
and govern their future directions (Pekrun, & Perry, 2014). The way both stu-
Journal of Education Culture and Society No. 2_2019 171
dents and their educators respond to emotions may affect learners’ education
in ways that may later on translate into their social, emotional and eventu-
ally cognitive development. Thus, broadening the knowledge on emotions
experienced in the foreign language classroom is well worth the effort. It is
safe to say that for approximately four decades the research on emotions has
focused primarily on negative emotions and, more speciÀcally, on language
anxiety (Daubney, Dewaele, & Gkonou, 2017). This situation has changed with
the advent of positive psychology. In recent years, the attention of research-
ers in the Àeld of second language acquisition (SLA), language educators and
teachers has been shifted into positive emotions (MacIntyre, & Mercer, 2014;
MacIntyre, 2016; MacIntyre, Gregersen, & Mercer, 2016). Among the gamut
of positive emotions experienced in the foreign language classroom, enjoy-
ment deserves a thorough investigation due to the critical role it serves in the
achievement setting (Piechurska-Kuciel, 2017). Although in recent years there
has been an increasing attention paid to investigating the role of foreign lan-
guage enjoyment among students (Dewaele, & MacIntyre, 2014; Dewaele, &
MacIntyre, 2016; Piechurska-Kuciel, 2017; Dewaele, Witney, Saito, & Dewaele,
2017; Dewaele, Franco, & Saito, 2019), little is known about this particular emo-
tion from the perspective of foreign language educators. This comes as a slight
disappointment, as teachers play a pivotal role in the aforementioned process.
Thus, the primary aim of this study is to investigate foreign language enjoy-
ment from the perspective of FL teachers.

Literature review on enjoyment

Enjoyment can be described as an example of positive achievement emo-
tions (Pekrun, 2006). Learners who experience enjoyment feel in control of
the achievement activities they are involved in and/or perceive activities’
outcomes as personally signiÀcant (Pekrun, Frenzel, & Goetz, 2007). In this
vein, learning enjoyment can be perceived as the pleasure experienced once
a learner appreciates the learning material (positive appraisal) and feels
capable of dealing with and completing the activity he/she is faced with
(control). Thus, enjoyment is believed to be of the utmost importance for the
subsequent sense of satisfaction, which complements academic achievement
(Ainley, & Hidi, 2014; Piechurska-Kuciel, 2017). Based on the assumption
that achievement emotions are domain-speciÀc, it is fair to say that enjoy-
ment is related to speciÀc subject areas, e.g. learning a foreign language (FL),
which appears to be the process particularly vulnerable to the deleterious
effects of negative emotions. Nevertheless, recent trends in positive psychol-
ogy have led to a proliferation of studies designed to promote the impor-
tance of foreign language learning being charged with positive emotions and
which perceive positive emotions as an ampliÀer and a driving force behind
second language acquisition (SLA) (Dewaele, & MacIntyre, 2014; Oxford,
2015; Dewaele et al., 2017).
172 Dynamics
As a multidimensional construct, enjoyment embraces Àve components:
affective, cognitive, motivational, expressive and physiological (Hagenauer, &
Hascher, 2014), the Àrst three of which deserve special attention. Referring to
the FL environment, it is reasonable to believe that the affective component of
enjoyment refers to the sense of joy experienced while learning a FL, whereas
the cognitive one to a positive evaluation of the situation which the FL learner is
engaged in. As such, FLE might be described as the feeling of excitement and/
or a spontaneous joy derived from participation in a novel and challenging
foreign language activity (affective component), which arouses learners’ curios-
ity and generates interest (cognitive component). Thus, it is reasonable to believe
that enjoyment actively and positively stimulates learners in the foreign lan-
guage classroom, as it may play a fundamental role in the cognitive processes
which are instrumental for learning in general and FL learning in particular,
e.g. heightened attention, memory and problem solving (Fredrickson, 2001;
Fredrickson, 2004; Pekrun, 2011; Oades-Sese, & Lewis, 2014). Subsequently, the
motivational component of enjoyment signiÀes the students’ willingness to sus-
tain that positive experience, propelling them into action and motivating them
to take up future FL challenges. According to Dewaele and MacIntyre (2014),
FLE has a great power to strengthen both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
to learn a foreign language, to expand one’s experience and the acquisition of
adaptive knowledge and to strengthen student’s awareness of language input.
As such, it may play a protective function against the lingering effects of nega-
tive emotions, such as foreign language anxiety, a fairly common and largely
unwelcome emotion in the foreign language classroom. The two remaining
components of enjoyment, physiological and expressing, embrace the bodily
reaction to the positive emotional experience.
The crucial role of enjoyment in foreign language learning has been
grounded on the Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions
(2001) as well as the control-value theory of achievement emotions (Pekrun, &
Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2014; Pekrun, Gotz, Titz, & Perry, 2002). As to its concep-
tualisation, Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) can be described as “a complex
emotion, capturing interacting dimensions of challenge and perceived ability
that reÁect human drive for success in the face of difÀcult tasks” (Deweale, &
MacIntyre, 2016, p. 216). FLE can be further conceptualised as a psychologi-
cally positive activating state, which is believed to propel the FL learner into
action and strengthen the motivational processes. The duration of FLE is not
that obvious, yet, taking into account its activity-focused nature, the duration
of enjoyment is a relatively short one (lasting from a few seconds to a few min-
utes). What does not leave any doubt, in turn, is that FLE can be characterised
by great intensity.
As to the effects of FLE on academic achievement, a number of tendencies
can be displayed. First, FLE is positively correlated with students’ academic
achievement (Dewaele, & Dewaele, 2018) and with their proÀciency in a for-
eign language. It is due to the fact that a good command of a foreign language
is linked with a greater control perception, particularly when FL learners
Journal of Education Culture and Society No. 2_2019 173
attribute value to the FL they study (Piechurska-Kuciel, 2017). Another ten-
dency is that female learners experience a higher level of FLE than their male
peers (Dewaele, & MacIntyre, 2014; Dewaele et al., 2017). Finally, in 2018,
Gholam Khajavy and Masoud Mahmoodzadeh found that FLE constitutes
a crucial factor in predicting learners’ increased willingness to communicate
(WTC).
Foreign language enjoyment is positively mediated by the classroom inter-
actions, e.g. with friendly and supportive peers, as well as with FL teachers
who are positive, encouraging, and who offer a variety of classroom activi-
ties which learners Ànd interesting and challenging (Dewaele, & MacIntyre,
2014; Pavelescu, & Petric, 2018). In this vein, two dimensions of enjoyment can
be distinguished: FLE related to the teacher (teaching practices, support, posi-
tive attitude, teacher’s recognition) and FLE connected with the atmosphere
in the FL classroom (peer interaction, positive atmosphere, positive engage-
ment) (Li, Jiang, & Dewaele, 2018). One more dimension that can be added to
the two aforementioned, however no less important, is FLE- private coalescing
around personal progress and development in the FL. The following sources
of FLE- private can be distinguished: progress realisation, an excellent FL per-
formance, the sense of pride of one’s accomplishment, positive changes in the
process of FL learning, etc. (Li, Jiang, & Dewaele, 2018).
Taken as a whole, FLE is a desirable emotion, which operates as a driving
force for the FL learning process, as it results in higher academic achievement,
boosts motivation, and may play a protective function against negative emo-
tions (MacIntyre, 2016). For that reason, FLE constitutes an educationally rel-
evant emotion and might be requisite for all learners to unlock their full foreign
language potential. In this sense, it can and should be treated as a legitimate,
multipurpose ‘tool’ facilitating language learning and its role cannot be under-
estimated. What emerges is a complex picture of foreign language enjoyment,
an underestimated and not fully explored emotion, thanks to which learning a
FL might be more effective and acquisition of a FL greatly facilitated.

Foreign language teachers

The role of the teacher in the foreign language classroom is not only limited
to passing the linguistic information to students, spreading the knowledge of
linguistics systems and teaching about FL culture, etc. It is far more important
than that. The teachers are in charge of managing the emotional tenor of the
classroom, creating a positive atmosphere in the FL group, establishing strong
social connections among peers and, ideally, teaching with joy, optimism and
passion (Dewaele et al., 2018). Thus, it is reasonable to believe that the psy-
chological well-being of teachers provides the basis for their emotional and
personal investment in teaching.
As it has been already mentioned, FL teachers, their teaching practices, the
variety of teaching techniques they use, the support they express to their stu-
174 Dynamics
dents, their positive appreciation and positive attitude to learners might all be
perceived as one of the lynchpins of FLE experienced by students (Li, Jiang, &
Dewaele, 2018).
The starting point for the present article is that enjoyment is an emotion
experienced not only by students but also by their educators, whose satisfac-
tion is believed to be strongly connected to the enjoyment experience of their
pupils, the progress they make and the pleasant atmosphere in the classroom
(Piasecka, 2016). Several studies have reported that enjoyment, in compari-
son to pride, anger, anxiety, shame and boredom, is one of the most frequent
discrete emotions experienced by teachers (Frenzel, 2014; Sutton, & Wheat-
ley, 2003) and that enjoyment dominates teachers’ emotions in the classroom
(Carson, 2006). Further, it has been found that enjoyment experienced by teach-
ers is positively related to learners’ enjoyment and the very effect of teachers’
enjoyment on learners’ enjoyment is mediated by teachers’ enthusiasm (Fren-
zel, Goetz, Lüdtke, Pekrun, & Sutton, 2009).
If perceived as a dominant emotion among educators, it is reasonable to
believe that enjoyment may greatly facilitate the teaching process in a similar
way to which it facilitates the learning process the students undergo. The ques-
tion that remains unanswered is whether or not a student may derive joy from
learning a foreign language if this process is stimulated by a teacher who does
not enjoy teaching his/her subject. The experience of enjoyment, therefore,
appears to be critical for both students (to learn) and for teachers (to teach FL
more effectively).

Empirical research
The primary objective of the present study was to investigate the level
of foreign language enjoyment experienced by foreign language teachers in
Poland while learning and teaching a FL. The secondary aim was to investigate
the sources of foreign language enjoyment experienced by FL students, yet
from the perspective of their educators.
The present study aims to address the following research questions:
RQ1: What is the level of foreign language enjoyment among foreign language
teachers in Poland (while learning/ while teaching)?
RQ2: What is the effect of independent variables (gender, place of residence,
years of experience, school type, a language being taught) on the level of
Foreign Language teaching Enjoyment?
RQ3: What sources of FLE are indicated by FL teachers?
RQ4: What did FL teachers derive joy from while learning a FL?
RQ5: What (in teachers’ opinions) do FL students derive joy from while learn-
ing a FL?
Journal of Education Culture and Society No. 2_2019 175
The instrument
The main instrument of the study was a web-questionnaire. The partici-
pants of the study were asked to Àll in an online questionnaire, which was
preceded by a brief explanation of the general aim of the research. The partici-
pants Àlled the questionnaire voluntarily. All questions were formulated in the
participants’ mother tongue, that is to say in Polish.
The questionnaire comprised questions of both quantitative and qualita-
tive nature. In the Àrst part, the teachers were asked to answer the questions
regarding their sociodemographic information (e.g. gender, place of residence,
type of school they teach in, work experience, etc.). The subsequent part of the
questionnaire included two scales.
The Àrst one was a 10-item scale created for the purpose of the study. It
was based on Pekrun’s (2002) Learning Enjoyment Scale, however, adopted to
the foreign language learning environment. All items in the scale were formu-
lated in the past tense (e.g. “I looked forward FL classes,” “ReÁecting on the
progress of my students made me happy,” “I got physically excited when my
learning was going well,” “I studied more than required because I enjoyed FL
much”). For the needs of the article, it was named Foreign Language Learning
Enjoyment Scale.
The second was a Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (developed by
Dewaele, & McIntyre, 2014) adapted to the foreign language teaching environ-
ment, which, for the needs of the present article received a working name of
Foreign Language Teaching Enjoyment Scale.
The following part of the questionnaire aimed to assess the sources of
foreign language enjoyment. The participants were provided with a list of 8
sources of enjoyment (e.g. teachers’ attitude, positive atmosphere in the class-
room, challenging material, learning real-life language) and they were asked
to point to at least 1 and at most 3 aspects, which in their opinion have the
greatest impact on their enjoyment experience. The participants had also an
opportunity to suggest their own source of enjoyment which was not listed in
the questionnaire. The reliability of the scale was equal to ǂ= .85.
The Ànal part of the questionnaire included two questions of a qualitative
nature. First, the teachers were asked to describe one speciÀc moment in their
own foreign language learning experience which they derived joy from. In the
subsequent part, they were asked to answer a similar question, yet, in reference
to their foreign language students.

Participants
The vast majority of all the participants constituted female teachers. A total
of 89 participants (63 females, 26 males) completed the web-questionnaire. All
of them were foreign language (FL) teachers and their experience in the profes-
sion ranged from one year to more than 20 years. 38 participants (42.7 %) have
been teaching a FL for less than 5 years, 17 participants (19.1%) 5-10 years, 20
176 Dynamics
participants (22.5%) 11-20 years and 14 respondents (15.7%) have been teaching
for more than 20 years. All of the participants were of Polish nationality and
completed the questionnaire in their mother tongue.
Regarding the participants’ place of residence: more than a half (49 people,
55.1 %) of all the participants teach FL in the school located in a city (over
50,000 citizens); 27 participants (30.3%) teach in a town (from 2,500-50,000 citi-
zens), and 13 teachers (14.6 %) teach in a village (with less than 2,500 citizens).
There was a quite even distribution of the types of school the participants
were teaching a foreign language in: only 3 out of all 89 participants teach a
FL in the kindergarten (3.4%); 29 teachers teach in primary school (32.6%); 25
in secondary grammar high school (28.1%); 8 in technical school (9%). There
was one participant who declared teaching a FL at the tertiary education level.
Eventually, over a quarter of all the participants (25.9%, 23 teachers) of the study
declared themselves as teaching in the private sector of education, teaching FL
to students at different educational levels in private language schools.
As to the languages being taught, the vast majority of the participants
taught English as an FL (38 respondents, 42.7%); the second largest group
constituted teachers of Spanish as an FL (14 teachers, 15.7%), the remaining
groups comprised of FL teachers of German (12 teachers, 13.5%), Russian (12,
13.5 %), French (8 participants, 9%) and Italian as a FL (1, 1.1%). The remaining
4 teachers (4.5%) declared that they were teaching more than two FLs.
Regarding the level of education, the vast majority of the participants had a
higher education. There were 11 FL teachers (12.4%) holding BA Degree, and
70 teachers (78.6) holding MA; 1 participant declared being at the PhD level.
There were 7 participants (7.9%) who have not completed their higher educa-
tion yet. Those were the philological students who were teaching a FL in the
private sector of education.

Variables
The independent variables in the present study were as follows: partici-
pants’ gender, type of foreign language being taught, place of residence, level
of education, years of teaching experience, and type of school the participants
taught in.
There were two main dependent variables measured in the present study:
teachers’ foreign language learning enjoyment and foreign language teaching
enjoyment. The operational deÀnition of teachers’ foreign language learning
enjoyment was reÁected by the number of points achieved on the Learning
Enjoyment Scale adapted to the FL environment (5-point Likert scale ranging
from “I absolutely do not agree” to “I fully agree”). All items on the scale were
phrased positively and were formed in the past tense in order to reÁect the
retrospective nature of the questions. The Cronbach alpha was .83.
The operational deÀnition of foreign language teaching enjoyment, in turn,
was reÁected by the number of points achieved on the FLE Scale adapted to the
Journal of Education Culture and Society No. 2_2019 177
needs of the study. Those were the Likert scale responses to a shortened ver-
sion of Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale adapted to the context of teaching,
not learning. In total, the scale included 17 questions, all phrased positively.
Foreign Language Teaching Enjoyment was measured through such items as
“I enjoy teaching a FL,” “I have fun while teaching a FL,” “I feel proud of my
students’ accomplishments in the FL.” The Cronbach alpha was .88.

Analyses
Data collection lasted one week. The data were computed by means of
the statistical program STATISTICA, with the main operations being descrip-
tive statistics (means and SD) and an inferential statistics operation: a t-test
for independent samples (between between-group comparison) and one-way
ANOVAs. T-test was used to compare the performance of two groups (males/
females) on a scale measuring their FL learning Enjoyment and FL teaching
Enjoyment. One-way ANOVA was be used to compare the performance of
more than two groups (years of experience, language being taught, etc.).

Research results – quantitative

The analysis of the results for all the participants of the present study reve-
aled a higher level of FL learning Enjoyment (M=4.42, SD=0.49) than of Fore-
ign Language teaching Enjoyment (M=4.19, SD=0.34). Table 1 below presents
these results in greater detail.

Table 1.
Mean, SD for FL learning Enjoyment and FL teaching Enjoyment for all the
participants and for males and females separately.
Variable All (N=89) Females (N=63) Males (N=26) T
M SD M SD M SD
FL learning Enjoyment 4.42 0.49 4.50 0.42 4.23 0.58 2.42*
FL teaching Enjoyment 4.19 0.34 4.21 0.27 4.14 0.47 0.89**
*p=0.016, p**= 0.379

What emerges from the table above is that there is a signiÀcant gender
difference in the Mean Scores for enjoyment. More speciÀcally, the results of
the study revealed a signiÀcant gender difference in the FL learning Enjoy-
ment with female teachers experiencing higher level of enjoyment (M=4.50,
SD=0.42) than male teachers (M=4.23, SD=0.58). There was also a slight gender
difference in terms of FL teaching Enjoyment, however not statistically signiÀ-
cant. Figure 1 below shows a visual representation of the data.
178 Dynamics

Figure 1.
FL learning Enjoyment and FL teaching Enjoyment form males and females.

For the needs of the present study, from now on the analysis of results
will be focused on Foreign Language teaching Enjoyment primarily. Among the
group of teachers participating in the present study, the highest level of Fore-
ign Language teaching Enjoyment was experienced by teachers of Russian as a
FL (M=4.34; SD= 0.28) and Spanish (M=4.29; SD=0.24), and the lowest by the
teachers of English (M=4.15; SD=0.37). Nevertheless, due to unequal sample
sizes, caution must be applied as the Àndings might not be generalisable. One-
-way ANOVA did not display any statistically signiÀcant differences between
the groups (F(6, 82)= .40923, p= .87). Figure 2 below shows a visual represen-
tation of the data.

Figure 2.
FL teaching Enjoyment according to the FL.
Journal of Education Culture and Society No. 2_2019 179
It is now time to analyse these results from the perspective of all the rema-
ining independent variables. The results are presented and summarized in
Table 2 below.

Table 2.
FL teaching Enjoyment according to independent variables
Variables FL teaching Enjoyment

M SD
Gender female 4.21 0.27
male 4.14 0.47
Place of residence village 4.13 0.41
town 4.29 0.25
city 4.17 0.33
Education student 4.38 0.23
BA 4.22 0.31
MA 4.19 0.33
PhD student* 4.01
Years of experience less than 5 year 4.12 0.37
5-10 years 4.33 0.30
11-20 years 4.22 0.26
more than 20 years 4.24 0.24
School type kindergarten 4.00 0.41
primary school 4.21 0.33
secondary grammar HS 4.20 0.22
vocational school 4.08 0.25
university* 4.68
private language schools 4.24 0.40
*only one participant

As shown in the table above, the level of FL teaching Enjoyment is at a rela-

tively high level regardless of all independent variables investigated in the pre-
sent study. A series of One-way ANOVAs have shown lack of signiÀcant effect
of any of the independent variables on the level of participants’ FL teaching
Enjoyment. The results were as follows: in the case of participants’ gender:
F(1, 87)= .38230, p= .54; their place of residence: F(2, 86)= 1.6135, p= .205; their
level of education F(3, 85)= .82838, p= .49, years of teaching experience: F(3,
85)= .7498, p= .16; and type of school the participants teach in: F(5, 83)= .97471,
p= .44. More interesting, however, appears to be the analysis of the qualitative
part of the data. Let us now take a closer look at these results.

Research results – qualitative

The participants of the study were provided with a list of eight sources
of FLE enjoyment, which in their opinion contribute the most signiÀcantly to
their students’ enjoyment. The participants pointed to at least one and at most
180 Dynamics
three sources of enjoyment. The results revealed that 68 out of total 89 par-
ticipants (76.4%) pointed to the teacher’s attitude as one of the main factors
that mainly affect students’ foreign language enjoyment. Then, 52 out of 89
(58.4%) claimed that it is an interesting topic of the lesson, 48 out of 89 (53.9%)
pointed to learning real-life language (that would be useful in everyday life
outside the school). Subsequently, 46 out of 89 (51.7%) participants marked
teachers’ sense of humour and a positive atmosphere in the classroom. The
least frequent source of FL the teachers pointed to were demanding/challeng-
ing activities (30 responses out of total 89, 33.7%) and speciÀc classroom activi-
ties, e.g. games, role plays, funny activities (27 out of 89, 30.3%). The results are
summarized in Table 3 below.

Table 3.
Sources of FLE and the frequency of responses
Source Number of responses
Teacher’s attitude 68 (89)
Interesting topic of the lesson 52 (89)
Learning real-life language 48 (89)
Teacher’s sense of humour 46 (89)
Positive atmosphere in the classroom 46 (89)
Possibility of self-development 43 (89)
Demanding/challenging activities 30 (89)
Games, play-roles, funny activities 27 (89)

According to the participants of the present study, students experience

enjoyment while learning a foreign language once the atmosphere in the clas-
sroom is positive and the teacher laughs, has got a positive attitude to teaching,
and creates the foreign language classroom into a positive and emotionally
safe place. It seems that the participants of the present study are well aware of
the fundamental role they play in the positive emotional experiences of their
pupils.
There were two open-ended questions the participants were asked to
answer, both aiming at investigating the sources of FLE according to parti-
cipants’ description. The Àrst one referred to an enjoyable episode in the FL
classroom which the teachers experienced themselves while being FL students.
The second one referred to an enjoyable episode in the FL classroom as well,
yet the participants were asked about their students’ experiences. Teachers’
accounts on enjoyment from both perspectives will be now presented respecti-
vely. Following the coding approaches of Dewaele and McIntyre (2014; 2018),
the emotion-related episodes were coded into three main categories: FLE—
teacher, FLE-Atmosphere, FLE-private. The results will be now analysed with
reference to the aforementioned categories.
Only 42 out of total 89 participants responded to the Àrst question. The par-
ticipants’ accounts were divided into three coding categories that may repre-
sent the sources of FLE. Table 4 below clearly illustrates the collected and cate-
Journal of Education Culture and Society No. 2_2019 181
gorised data, provides the examples and presents the frequency of mentions
by the participants.

Table 4.
Sources of teachers’ personal learning enjoyment, examples and frequency of
mentions by the participants (N=42)
Coding category Examples Frequency
FLE-Teacher - teacher’s sense of humour and jokes; positive 12/42
attitude to students; recognition and appreciation.
- teaching strategies, methods and techniques;
speciÀc classroom activities: games, role plays,
singing songs, storytelling
FLE-Atmosphere positive relationship with peers, mutual help, nice 6/42
atmosphere, smiling, laughing
FLE-Private pride in one’s accomplishment, sense of self- 24/42
development, real-life use of language, getting good
marks, teacher praise in front of a class or work;
preparing to, taking part in and Ànally winning the
competition, learning more than required

Among the Àrst category, teachers’ positive attitude to learners, their

appreciation was most frequently mentioned sources of enjoyment. One par-
ticipant commented on how positive attitude of her teachers encouraged her
to learn English: “I was learning a FL more than 30 years ago. At that time,
the classes were overcrowded and there was no place for games and fun
activities. What I remember the most is the smile and positive attitude of my
professor, which motivated me to hard work” (female, teacher with more
than 20 years of experience in teaching English as a FL in secondary grammar
high school).
The remaining sources of FLE in this category were mostly related to the
teacher’s practices in the FL classroom, variety of teaching strategies and sti-
mulating speciÀc classroom activities (preparing projects about FL culture,
playing games and role-plays, learning by means of songs and drama, telling
stories, etc.).
Among the category of FLE-atmosphere, positive atmosphere in the FL
classroom and a good relationship with peers (laughing, smiling, having fun)
were mentioned the most frequently as the source of FLE. One participant
described the atmosphere in her FL classroom in the following way: “we felt a
strong sense of community, support and team spirit” (female, teacher of Rus-
sian as a FL, 5-10 years of experience).
And another one emphasised that a positive and relaxed atmosphere in the
FL did not exclude learning, claiming that: “there was a homely and relaxed
atmosphere in the FL classroom, we could talk about anything we wanted,
under one condition, it needed to be in the FL” (female, Spanish teacher with
5-10 years of teaching experience).
182 Dynamics
The participants of the study the most frequently mentioned the private
dimension of FLE. Among this category, the participants often felt enjoyment
when they had a good language performance in class and they felt pride in
their accomplishment, e.g. “I felt amazing when I was able to precisely express
my thoughts in a foreign language” (female, English teacher in the private
school). In a signiÀcant number of cases the participants used the word pride/
proud in order to reÁect their sense of satisfaction and accomplishment they
felt in the FL classroom: “I was proud of myself when I was praised in front of
the classroom” (female, English teacher in primary school); “I remember the
pride I felt when I used the language in the real-life situation for the Àrst time”
(female, French teacher in the primary school); “the sense of pride when I was
the only one in the classroom who knew the answer” (male, English teacher
in secondary grammar high school); “I was proud of myself when I knew the
expression, which the teachers were unfamiliar with” (female, English teacher,
technical vocational school).
The second open-ended question also aimed to investigate the sources of
FLE according to three categories. Nonetheless, this time, the participants of
the study were asked not about their own but about their students’ experien-
ces. In other words, this question enabled the researcher to investigate what joy
students’ derive from while learning a foreign language, yet, from the perspec-
tive of teachers. 45 out of total 89 participants responded to that question. Table
5 below represents the collected and categorised data.

Table 5.
Learners’ sources of FLE according to teachers, examples and frequency of
mentions by the participants (N=45)
Coding category Examples Frequency

FLE-Teacher teachers’ dynamism, positive emotions, 20/ 45

feedback, lack of boredom, variety of teaching
techniques (e.g. songs, quizzes, charades, role-
plays, Áashcards, skype conversation); involving
learners in exciting/challenging games);
encouraging students to a friendly rivalry
FLE- Atmosphere positive relationship with peers, mutual help, 9/45
nice atmosphere, smiling, laughing, integration
FLE-Private Pride, joy and excitement about one’s 16/45
accomplishment, sense of self-development,
real-life use of language, overcoming challenges,
taking part in a competition, winning the FL
competition, learning more than required

The participants of the study most frequently mentioned the teacher’s dimen-
sion of FLE. Among this category, the participants enumerated a variety of teaching
methods and techniques which they incorporate while teaching and which, in
their opinion, constitute the source of positive emotions among their students.
Journal of Education Culture and Society No. 2_2019 183
The second in frequency was the private dimension of FLE. Similar to the
previous question, the participants pointed most often to pride, joy and exci-
tement of their students at the moment of accomplishment and excellent FL
performance. Dealing with challenging tasks, taking part in FL competition
were other main sources of FLE.
The participants of the present study pointed least frequently to the social
dimension of FLE, that is FLE-Atmosphere. It is worth to allude to the words of
one participant commenting on a game competition:
The students really enjoyed the game aimed at practising conditional clauses. Although
the game was difÀcult, the students were really absorbed while playing. They were sho-
uting with joy once they did something correctly. If not, they were slightly disappointed.
In the end, everyone was satisÀed and achieved a small success. They left the class with
smiles on their faces and they wanted to play again. Nevertheless, such a situation did
not take place in each and every class. In those classes where the atmosphere is not good
and the relationships between peers are stormy, the game was not successful (English
teacher, primary school, less than Àve years of experience).
In a similar vein, FLE was depicted by another participant of the study
(teacher of English at the tertiary educational level). The participant claimed as
follows: “when they [the students] faced a grammatical problem which at the
beginning appeared to be intractable for them. After some time of dealing with
it, they found the answer and had a sense of enlightenment. They felt excited
and proud of themselves, which motivated them for further work”.
These two examples highlight some core truths about foreign language
enjoyment. First, taking into account its private dimension, FLE is an emo-
tion that is not trivial and frivolous, it is not experienced at the moment of
dealing with easy tasks, but with those that pose a moderate challenge, requ-
ire mental effort. In this sense, enjoyment is a reÁection of learners’ drive for
success in the face of difÀcult foreign language tasks (Deweale, & MacIntyre,
2016).
It is the joy at the moment of taking the challenge, of dealing with a deman-
ding task and eventually, it is the sense of satisfaction and pride in one’s
accomplishment which motivates for further work. Taking into considera-
tion its social dimension, in turn, enjoyment appears to be strongly modera-
ted by the relationship among peers students, the atmosphere created in the
classroom, positive rivalry and the social bonds established in the FL. Finally,
it might be determined by the relationship with teachers, their dynamism, a
variety of teaching techniques, positive attitude and enthusiasm, their support
and appreciation. A concluding comment for what has been suggested might
be vividly represented by the quotation of one of the participants of the study:
“Even the most difÀcult grammatical concept can be presented in an intere-
sting way. What is absolutely crucial? Positive emotions, teacher’s dynamism
and a variety of teaching techniques” (French teacher in the primary school,
female).
184 Dynamics
Discussion
The present study aimed to answer Àve research questions. The results will
be now analysed and discussed in line with these questions.
The Àrst research question aimed to investigate the level of FLE among fore-
ign language teachers in Poland. At the beginning, the results will be discus-
sed for the Foreign Language learning Enjoyment (retrospective accounts of the
teachers when they were FL learners themselves).
Not unexpectedly, the results of the study reveal that Polish foreign langu-
age teachers experienced a relatively high level of foreign language learning
enjoyment. Due to the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, this is the Àrst
study aimed at investigating the level of enjoyment experienced by teachers,
these results cannot be compared to any other studies. Nonetheless, these
results are not surprising for two reasons. First, foreign language teachers can
boast high expertise in a FL and it has been found that high proÀciency and
mastery in a FL results in high FLE (Dewaele, & MacIntyre, 2014; 2016; 2018).
Second, it appears to be a matter of course that those students who enjoy lan-
guage learning more signiÀcantly than others, decide to continue their fore-
ign language learning to the level of tertiary education and, more often than
not, use the FL as a tool to work in their future, e.g. by becoming FL teachers.
The results reveal a signiÀcant gender difference in Foreign Language Learning
Enjoyment in favour of the female participants. These results dovetail those
observed in the previous studies on FLE with female learners experiencing a
signiÀcantly higher level of FLE than their male peers (Dewaele, & MacIntyre,
2014; Radwan, 2014; Dewaele, Witney, Saito, & Dewaele, 2018).
As the Foreign Language teaching Enjoyment, the level of enjoyment is on
a lower level than Foreign Language learning Enjoyment. Nevertheless, due
to two slightly different tools (scales) adopted for the measurement of these
variables, caution must be applied while making any comparison. In the case
of this type of enjoyment, there are no signiÀcant gender differences.
The second research question examined the effects of independent varia-
bles on the level of FL teaching Enjoyment. The results reveal that none of the
investigated variables have a signiÀcant effect on the level of Foreign Langu-
age Teaching Enjoyment. Optimistically, it might be stated that foreign langu-
age teachers experience a high level of teaching enjoyment, regardless of their
gender, place of residence, years of experience, school type, and the type of the
language they teach.
The following research question aimed to investigate the sources of FLE
which, in the teachers’ opinions, have the most signiÀcant effect on their stu-
dents’ enjoyable experiences in the classroom. The results reveal that the vast
majority of the teachers perceive themselves and their positive attitude to stu-
dents to be the strongest predictors for their learners’ enjoyment. It seems that
foreign language teachers are aware of the fact that they play a vital role in the
foreign language learning process, not only because of their expertise but also
because of emotions that they may evoke in students, the atmosphere they
Journal of Education Culture and Society No. 2_2019 185
create in the classroom, and useful and interesting lesson content they provide
their learners with. In very general terms, they are in charge, or more adequ-
ately, they have the privilege of inÁuencing their students’ emotions in the
FL classroom. Thus, the effective foreign language teacher is not only the one
who may boast great command of a foreign language, methodology—system
of practices and procedures that a teacher uses to teach—but, Àrst and fore-
most, the atmosphere and the relationship created in the FL classroom as it
may impact the learners’ attitude to life-long learning.
The two Ànal research questions were of a strictly qualitative nature and
aimed to investigate FLE according to three main categories: FLE-Private, FLE-
-Atmosphere, FLE-social. The distribution of these categories was signiÀcantly
different when the teachers’ described their own experiences and those of their
learners. Describing their own experiences, the private dimension of enjoy-
ment was mentioned the most frequently. The vast majority of the participants
emphasised the joy they derived while overcoming FL difÀculties, giving an
excellent FL performance, taking part in extra-curricular activities and FL com-
petitions, all of which made them proud, satisÀed and fulÀlled.
Asked about their students’ experiences, in turn, it was the teacher who was
indicated as the main source of FLE the most frequently. Teachers’ dynamism,
positive attitude (teacher’s praise) and a variety of teaching techniques are just
a few examples of the teacher’s dimension of FLE indicated by the participants
of the study. Regardless of the question being posed, the atmosphere in the FL
classroom (peer interaction, integration, positive climate in the classroom) was
indicated the least frequently.

Conclusions and implications

The present study aimed to investigate enjoyment in the foreign language
classroom, which among the gamut of other positive emotions experienced in
the foreign language classroom deserves a thorough investigation due to its
critical role in the achievement settings. The originality of the present study
lies in the choice of a mixed-method approach (both of a qualitative and quan-
titative nature) using a relatively large sample in a Àeld characterised by case
studies. To the best of my knowledge, this is the Àrst study on foreign language
enjoyment among teachers within the Polish educational context.
The results of the present study indicate that foreign language teachers
in Poland experience a high level of both learning and teaching enjoyment,
regardless of their gender, the language they teach, level of education and the
type of the school they teach in.
A qualitative analysis of participants’ emotional experiences in the FL class-
room conÀrmed previous research on FLE to a certain degree. That is, foreign
language enjoyment is more related to learner-internal and teacher-speciÀc
variables than to the behaviour of peers and the atmosphere created in the FL
classroom.
186 Dynamics
There are a number of pedagogical implications that may arise from this
study. The Àrst one is that the role of the teacher in the foreign language class-
room is not only limited to passing the linguistic information to the students
and/or familiarising learners with the culture of the FL, etc. Once assumed
that teachers are responsible for managing the emotional tenor of the foreign
language classroom, their positive attitude and more speciÀcally their appre-
ciation and recognition may constitute a tool that can be a powerful motivator
for foreign language students. As revealed by the participants of the present
study, positive relationship with a FL teacher, who is friendly, passionate,
humorous and supportive, is one of the strongest predictors of foreign lan-
guage enjoyment. Teacher support and positive classroom should be therefore
a commonplace for all the students, whether those enjoying learning or not.
Teachers’ appreciation in front of the classroom is also highly recommended as
it may lead to the feelings of pride and self-satisfaction, which further motivate
students to learn and develop.
One cannot forget about the private dimension of foreign language enjoy-
ment derived from dealing with an activity that requires heightened attention
and mental effort from the students. Thus, FL teachers should do their best to
provide their students with novel and challenging tasks that arouse their curi-
osity, generate interest and strengthen intrinsic motivation. Further, teachers
should give learners a sense of autonomy and allow them, from time to time,
to make choices of what they want and need to learn.
Eventually, since it is well-known that foreign language learning is the
process particularly prone to anxiety, which constitutes a threat to not only to
the performance in the FL but also to learners’ self-concept and their identity,
foreign language educators should create a less threatening environment in
the FL classroom. This could be done by acknowledging students’ discomfort,
showing support, allowing learners to make mistakes, or simply helping stu-
dents to develop more realistic expectations for foreign language learning.

Limitations
The generalisability of these results might be subject to certain limitations.
The reader should bear in mind that the study is based on the teacher’s response
who Àlled out the questionnaire voluntarily. This, in turn, for some researchers,
may have led to biased results. Second, the participants Àlled out the question-
naire online which gave the researcher a lack of control over the procedure of the
data collection. Further, qualitative data were analysed only by the author of the
present study. To avoid biased results, an independent researcher with the same
coding categories is recommended. For a more complete understanding of the
nature of enjoyment in the FL environment, data triangulation is strongly recom-
mended, i.e. the investigation of this particular emotion from the perspective of
students and teachers simultaneously, ideally, incorporating both quantitative
and qualitative approach (mixed-method approach).
Journal of Education Culture and Society No. 2_2019 187
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