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20TheRoleofEmotionsinLanguageLearning
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1.Learning:CognitiveorEmotional?
Traditionalapproachestoeducationlargelyemphasizedthesuperiorityofcognition
overemotion.Moreover,studiesofbrainsystemsexplainingtheconnectionbetween
behaviourandcognitionadoptedanapproachinwhichlearningandreasoningwere
perceivedashigher-ordersystemsgoverninganobedientorganism.Whileemotions
wereacknowledged,theirroleininfluencingbehaviourandrationalthinking
wasprimarilyoverlooked(Damasio,1994).Inkeepingwithsuchamindset,much
ofeducationseemedtoadoptthemaximthatstudentsdidnotneedtoliketheir
teachersorthesubjectitselfaslongastheydidtheirschoolwork.
However,whileitisnecessarytoobservethedistinctionbetweencognitionand
emotionasaspectsofhumanfunctioningingeneral,andlearninginparticular,an
excessivelystrictinsistenceontheirseparationmaydivertourattentionfromthefact
thatemotionsafectbothcognitiveandsensoryprocesses.Infact,certainaspectsof
cognitionthatarerelatedtoeducation,suchaslearning,attention,memory,decision
making,motivationandsocialfunctioningareintenselyafectedbyemotion(Immor-
dino-Yang&Damasio,2007).Whilerationalthoughtandlogicalthinkingdoexist,
theyhardlyeverappearincontextsthataredevoidofemotion.Possibleexamplesof
rationalthinkingtakingoveremotionmaybefoundwhensolvingmoraldilemmasor
makingethicaldecisions,suchashowtodistributescarceamountsoffoodinagroup
ofstarvingpeople.Similarly,onemaycomeacrosscontextsinwhichcognition-free
emotionisaccompaniedbyparticularbodilyprocesses,suchasincreasedheart
rate,blushing,oracceleratedbreathing.Teneurologicalinterplayofemotionand
cognition,andtheresultingoverlapmaybeseeninthediagramshowninFigure2.1.
Asmaybeobserved,emotionalthoughtincorporatesalargenumberoflearning-re-
latedprocesses,bothinsocialandnon-socialcontexts.Teoverlappingareabetween
cognitionandemotionestablishesaplatformwherelearningprocessesmayoccur.
Teauthorsofthemodelpostulatethateducatorswhofailtounderstandtheroleof
students’emotionsconsequentlyfailtoappreciateacriticalforceinstudentlearning,
oreventheveryreasonwhystudentslearnatall(ibid.,p.9).Inessence,theemo-
tionalthoughtmodelprovidesabiologicallybasedframeworkforstudiesinto
theroleofemotionandcognitioninrelevanteducationalprocesses.
Intraditionalforeignlanguageteaching,asubstantialnumberofstudieshavebeen
devotedtoucoldcognition”(MacIntyre&Vincze,2017,p.62),i.e.,cognitiveand
abilityfactors,suchasmemory,intelligenceoraptitude,debatedasiftheywere
devoidofemotion(Pintrichetal.,1993).Incontrast,auhotcognition”approach
exploreslearningasaprocessinwhichcognitionisignitedbymotivationand
emotions(Oxford,2016,p.25).
