Examining Emotion in Sense-Based Teaching: A Cognitive Task of Sentence Comprehension

Document Type : مقالات علمی پژوهشی

Authors
S. Tabatabaee Farani 1
R. Pishghadam 2
1 PhD in TEFL, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
2 Professor of TEFL and Educational Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
10.29252/LRR.12.4.3
Abstract
The significance of the five senses and the sense-induced emotions are clear to everyone. Therefore, the newly-developed concept of emotioncy which includes emotion as one of its basic components has been introduced to the field of foreign language learning. The present study attempts to investigate the effects of the emotioncy-based vocabulary instruction on the learners’ success. To this end, nine avolved vocabulary items were selected and instructed to the participants through different emotioncy kinds. Then, the participants performed a sentence comprehension task, and, based on the instruction, decided whether the sentences were correct or not. The analysis of the behavioral data revealed that employing different emotioncy levels to teach the words could lead into a significant difference among them both in terms of the response accuracy and the response time. The findings of this study can emphasize the significance of the sense-induced emotions in, among others, teaching and testing new linguistic items.


1. Introduction

One of the most effective ways of learning is considered to be reading (Kartal, Ozkilic, & Ozteke, 2012). Vocabukary knowledge can play a pivotal role in successful reading comprehension (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2008; Washang, 2014). Along with different strategies which have been introduced to lep learning vocabulary items (e.g., Nation, 2001; Nemati, 2009), emotioncy has also been introduced by Pishghadam, Tabatabayian, & Navari (2013a) as an efficient way to deal with vocabulary learning and focuses on sense-niduced emotions (Pishghadam, Adamson, & shayesteh, 2013b). the present study is going to find a proper answer to the following question: Is there any significant difference among the three levels of emotioncy employed in teaching vocabulary items with regard to response accuracy and response time to the cognitive sentence comprehension task?



2. Literature Review

2.1. Emotioncy

Derived from Developmental, Individual-Differences, Relationship-Based (DIR) model (Greenspan, 1992), Pishghadam et al. (2013a, 2013b) introduced emotioncy which starts from avolvement (null) to exvolvement (auditory emo, visual, kinesthetic), and involvement (inner and arch) (Pishghadam, 2016). Emotioncy consists of there basic components of emotion (quality), senses, and frequency (quantity).





Figure 1. Emotioncy Levels (Reprinted with permission from "Emotioncy in Language Education: From Exvolvement to Involvement", by R. Pishghadam, 2015, October, Paper presented at the 2nd Conference of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Language Teaching, Literature, and Translation Studies. Iran, Mashhad). Copyright 2015 by Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.



Emotioncy has been the core of several studies in the field of foreign language learning and teaching (e.g., Borsipour, 2016; Pishghadam & Shayesteh, 2016; Pishghadam, Zabetipour, & Aminzadeh, 2016; Shahian, 2016). In general, the present study tries to shed light on the aspect of emotion in emotioncy.



3. Methodology

3.1.Participants

Thirty seven EFL learners (8 males, 29 females) participated in the present study based on the results of the inclusion criteria. The participants’ age range was between 18 to 30 with mean (M) and standard deviation (SD) of 22.22 and 3.27, respectively. All participants were graduate and undergraduate university students who majored in various educational fields. Their English language proficiency levels were determined as intermediate and upper intermediate.



3.2.Inclusion Criteria

To homogenize the participants, the following inclusion criteria were applied: Oxford Quick Placement Test (OPT), Wechsler’s Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) III, The Emotioncy Scale, neophobia (The Neophobia Scale).



4. Results

4.1.Response Accuracy

The results of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test proved the normality of data.



Table 1

Normality test for response accuracy data







Kolmogorov-Smirnov
Shapiro-Wilk



Statistic
df
Sig.
Statistic
df
Sig.


Total
0.08
37
0.20
0.96
37
0.25






Then, to investigate the effect of emotioncy on response accuracy, one-way repeated measures ANOVA was applied and the results indicated the significant effect of emotioncy on response accuracy (Wilk’s Lambda= 0.08, F= (2, 35), p= 0.00, ŋ2p= 0.92).



4.2.Response Time

The results of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test proved the normality of data.

Table 2

Normality test for response time data







Kolmogorov-Smirnov
Shapiro-Wilk



Statistic
df
Sig.
Statistic
df
Sig.


Total
0.31
37
0.09
0.98
37
0.80






Then, to investigate the effect of emotioncy on response time, one-way repeated measures ANOVA was applied and the results indicated the significant effect of emotioncy on response time (Wilk’s Lambda= 0.52, F= (2, 35), p= 0.00, ŋ2p= 0.48).



5. Discussion and Conclusion

Based on the behavioral data of this study, there are significant differences among the three types of emotioncy with regard to both response accuracy and response time measures. Digging into the first part of the research question about response accuracy, it should be clarified that the accuracy of the responses to sentences containing words taught through involvement were significantly higher than exvolvement and avolvement. This result is in line with Shahian (2016) who suggested that the participants who were at involvement level about the topic of a reading comprehension text could be more successful in comparison with others.

Studying response time corroborated response accuracy results. To put it another way, it shoul be explained that responses to sentences containing words taught through involvement were statistically shorter than other sentences. Response time results were in line with Kissler and Herbert (2013) who indicated that identifying emotional words happened ibn a shorter time compared with nnemotional ones.

Moreover, taking Kahnemann’s (2011) thinking model into account, the present study concluded that using more senses in learning vocabulary items could cause a shorter response time and a faster thinking process.

Keywords

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Language Related Research
Volume 12, Issue 4 - Serial Number 64
September and October 2021
Pages 73-104