A Descriptive Analysis of Emotion Regulation in the ESL Classroom of University Students: A Vignette Study

Abstract

Emotions tend to have a detrimental impact on students’ learning outcomes. This research project is an endeavor to investigate the emotions experienced by students in the ESL classroom and identify specific scenarios where both male and female participants experience positive and negative emotions. The aim is to investigate which Emotion-Regulation Strategies (ERS) both genders employ to quell unfavorable emotions. The instrument MYE (Manage Your Emotions) was administered to English majors (sophomores; N = 35) enrolled in the undergraduate program at the University of Sargodha and for this, the vignette methodology was employed where the primary data was collected using a scenario-based questionnaire designed by Oxford and Gkonou (2017). The students’ emotional responses were examined based on these scenario-based questions typical to Classroom Language learning. Participants explicitly specified the contexts where they experienced positive and negative emotions respectively. The findings revealed that feelings of interest and excitement were the most reported emotions amongst females. Whereas aggressive tendencies were observed in male participants rather than girls in similar scenarios. It was also established that male and female students employ different ERS to counter any negative emotions. Finally, future research directions and pedagogical applications are suggested for a better and more comprehensive understanding of ESL classrooms.