Abstract

In applied linguistics and sociolinguistics, emotions constitute an emerging space for capturing the complexity of foreign language learners’ experiences. However, our knowledge of emotion-based foreign language studies has long been dominated by English discussion, leaving a significant gap of understanding emotions of learning languages other than English (LOTE). The incommensurability in the existing literature forms a stark contrast to China’s nation-wide valorization of learning LOTE. Previous studies (Li, 2021; Li & De Costa, 2023; Li & He, 2023) show that learning LOTE is largely mediated by social, political, cultural and economic discourses across spatial-temporal contexts. Seeing emotions from a critical sociopolitical perspective (Benesch, 2017; Song, 2023), this study unpacks the emotional experiences of a cohort of Chinese students learning Lao language at a Chinese university. A longitudinal ethnography was conducted between August 2023 and May 2024 and the data included field notes, participant observation in and out of class, semi-structured interviews and written documents. Findings indicate that Chinese students learning Lao language experience both positive and negative emotions driven by sociopolitical and cultural factors circulating at macro-, meso- and micro-levels. It is argued that foreign language learners’ emotions are not fixed but dynamic and mediated in a broader process of socioeconomic transformations within and across national boundaries across time and space. The study is closed by offering some insights on conducting emotion-based foreign language studies.

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