For a long time, overemphasizing the cognitive aspects of learning such as knowledge processing and memory system functioning had led to a neglect of affective dimensions of the learning situation. However, there have been a good number of studies within different fields of education bringing emotions to the focus of attention (Pekrun et al, 2002).
It can be said that emotions, thinking, decision-making, and behaviour (performance) are all important components of cognitive development. Specifically, moral emotions can regulate students' decision-making, which in turn may lead to academic performance.
Emotions and motivation make up important components of learners and instructors in any educational context as emotional states of participants in education can significantly affect learning in general (Tyng et al., 2017). For example, research has found that moral emotions and cognitive development are interrelated (Roeser, 2017).
The impact of negative emotions
Exploration of the impact of negative and positive emotions has interested psychologist and education experts, and social scientists. For instance, foreign language learning could be extensively impacted by the learners’ emotions and how learners handle their emotions in the learning process (MacIntyre, & Gregersen, 2012).
However, negative emotions, such as anxiety and depression, has led to several critical consequences, such as memory declination, poor academic performance among learners (Erzen, 2017). Research on subject anxiety and personal adjustment shows that students' learning environment and teaching methods also lead to negative emotions to a certain extent. Specifically, anxious students are prone to resistance when learning unfamiliar subjects or taking tests (Zheng & Cheng, 2016).
Despite being a controversial issue, some negative emotions have been found to be result in better performance in terms of productivity and academic achievements. Unexpectedly, although shame and guilt have always been regarded as negative emotions, Manganelli et al. (2019) suggested that it positively correlated with academic performance, which means the higher the shame, the better the academic performance (Manganelli et al., 2019).
Despite being a controversial issue, some negative emotions have been found to be result in better performance in terms of productivity and academic achievements.
The significance of learner-teacher relationship
Any attempt to set up a principled relationship between learners and teacher will play the role of accelerator in the learning process. Learner-teacher relationship, defined as duties and control towards the learning process shared between the teacher and learners, has a determining role in moulding classroom procedure regardless of theoretical or methodological options. Furthermore, the whole instructional procedure is sometimes defined in terms of what goes on between the teacher and the learners.
From the class management point of view, a teacher’s position in the class can range from authoritarian to laissez-faire and even indifferent. However, teacher-learner interaction is not relevant to disciplinary issues only. Whatever terminology is used in talking about teachers’ role, motivation, and emotions, it is indeed crucial for education policy makers and educators to understand the point that the traditional image of teacher as the absolute paragon of wisdom and the authority in the group is not acceptable anymore. It can be said that the success or failure of a program relies to a large extent on the quality of teacher-learner relationship.
Motivation
In human psychology, motivation is a recurring key concept used to explain differences in individuals’ behaviour and the way an individual’s behaviour is directed (Humphreys & Revelle, 1984) Researchers and psychologists often consider motive and motivation as the engine of every human action.
For example, studies have been conducted to investigate language learner's motivation. where motivation and its various dimensions were identified as a key human feature that form the important decisions made by the learners about different issues in language education.
Another example could be examining the effect of Flow State on English as a Foreign Language learners’ vocabulary learning. High intrinsic motivation and flow state not only push students to more challenges, attention, and concentration in learning environment, but also enables students to better cope with the cognitive challenges embedded into the language learning task leading, therefore, to a higher level of achievements from the pedagogical situation (Amini et al., 2016).
Humanistic approach
"Humanistic" approach in pedagogy is an approach based on the principle that the whole being, emotional and social, needs to be engaged in learning, not just the mind. This approach in learning and teaching can help academicians and teachers expedite efficient utilization and of the humans' potential to their benefits in educational settings. Research and teaching should be engaged in a dialogue interactively, constructively, and interchangeably. In other words, knowledge from research must furnish teaching methods and strategies, to train “better” human beings.
Since ‘the development of whole person’ was brought to the focus of attention by humanist psychologists as a central concern in educational theory, affective variables have been assumed to have a significant role in teaching, learning, and the learning process in a pedagogical setting. For example, the process of second language development, because of the very nature of language as a vehicle for communication, is immensely influenced by socio-affective variables.
In an instructional setting, on the other hand, emotional factors are clearly manifested in what goes on between the teacher and learners. As a result, the way the affective dimension of teacher-learner interactions is handled can predict, to a large extent, the effectiveness of interactional activities in second language classes.
Humanistic language teaching with its established fundamental principles has a great deal to offer to the instructors and diagnosing the qualities of what can be labelled an “amiable learning”. A set of basic principles such as emphasis of Humanistic Theory, post-method pedagogy, personalization, imagination, emphasis on students as language users, diversifying resources, intersubjectivity, choices, handling emotions, teacher’ vulnerability, self-evaluation, and priority of learning over teaching could maximally contribute to a favourable milieu for language learning to take place (Amini, &Amini, 2012). Proper teacher education and learner training will be essential to put the suggested guidelines into practice in an instructional setting.
Conclusion
Teacher and learners’ emotions, motivations, attitudes, expectations, and beliefs concerning each other and themselves, pedagogical setting, and classroom activities are absolutely significant in a productive and efficient teaching and learning.
References
Amini, D., Ayari, S., & Amini, M. (2016). The effect of flow state on EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious Understanding, 3(5), 9-18.
Amini, D., & Amini, M. (2012). Teacher and learner in humanistic language teaching. Language in India, 12(7), 100-112. http://www.languageinindia.com/july2012/aminipostmethodfinal.html
Erzen, E. (2017). The effect of anxiety on student achievement. In The factors effecting student achievement (pp. 75-94). Springer,Cham.
Humphreys, M.S., Revelle, W., (1984). Personality, motivation, and performance: A theory of the relationship between individual differences and information. Psychological Review 91, 153-184.
MacIntyre, P. D., & Gregersen, T. (2012). Emotions that facilitate language learning: The positive-broadening power of the imagination. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2, 193-213. doi: 10.14746/ssllt.2012.2.2.4.
Manganelli, S., Cavicchiolo, E., Mallia, L., Biasi, V., Lucidi, F., & Alivernini, F. (2019). The interplay between self-determined motivation, self-regulated cognitive strategies, and prior achievement in predicting academic performance. Educational Psychology, 39(4), 470-488.
Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Titz, W. & Perry, R.P. (2002). Academic emotions in students’ self-regulated learning and achievement: A program of quantitative and qualitative research. Educational Psychologist, 37, 91–106.
Roeser, S. (2017). Risk, technology, and moral emotions. London, England: Routledge.
Tyng, C. M., Amin, H. U., Saad, M. N., & Malik, A. S. (2017). The influences of emotion on learning and memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1454.
Zheng, Y., & Cheng, L. (2018). How does anxiety influence language performance? From the perspectives of foreign language classroom anxiety and cognitive test anxiety. Language Testing in Asia, 8(1), 1-19.
