Abstract Summary
Through qualitative data and a pre- and post-test questionnaire on WTC, emotions, motivational factors and attitudes towards the target language, we investigate how compulsory, yet unbound, informal digital tandem encounters between university students of French and Dutch affect emotional engagement and willingness to communicate.
Abstract :
A common nightmare for learners of a foreign language (FL) is to engage into a conversation with native speakers, as it provokes high levels of anxiety linked to insecurity. Research conducted on emotions in SLA has long been reduced to anxiety until the development of positive psychology, which added the concept of enjoyment as an additional motivational factor (Dewaele & MacIntyre 2014). Both anxiety and enjoyment have been identified as strong predictors for the willingness to communicate (WTC) as originally described by MacIntyre and colleagues (1998). Empirical research highlighted that by creating an optimal environment, learners gain control over their emotions, which proves to be positive for their WTC and the development of FL skills (Dewaele 2019). Within an e-tandem project between Dutch learners of French and Francophone Belgian learners of Dutch we analyse to what extent emotions evolve positively and WTC increases or not.
The e-tandem project between two university language departments is named Bab(b)elade, which is a wordplay on the tower of Babel,balade(French for a walk taken for pleasure) and babbelen(Dutch for chitchatting) and stands for the unbound, informal digital encounters in which French alternates with Dutch. The main difference with most e-tandem projects is that though it is compulsory, the content, organization and progress are hardly controlled in order to enhance autonomy, freedom in the interactions, solidarity and emotional engagement. For this fifth cohort, we developed a pre- and post-test questionnaire on WTC, emotions, motivational factors and attitudes towards the target language. Next to the quantitative data from the 24 e-tandems, qualitative data from the students’ individual reports on their experience complement the analyses. Previous results indicate that overall anxiety decreases, whereas the pleasure to speak the language, without being judged, increases or is said to be regained.
