The relationships between young Chinese EFL learners’ classroom emotions, engagement and EFL proficiency

The last decade has seen a proliferation of studies about emotions in FL teaching and learning. The present study examined three of the most researched and well-known FL emotions, anxiety, boredom and enjoyment, and their relationship with learners’ engagement in EFL class and EFL test scores for reading, writing, listening, and speaking. One-hundred-and-eleven Primary 3-4 EFL children completed a questionnaire and FL tests. Various statistical analyses (correlation, hierarchical multiple regression, and path analysis) revealed that all five variables are significantly correlated, enjoyment was the strongest predictor of engagement and proficiency, followed by boredom. The path analysis evidenced that the hypothetical path of emotions→engagement→proficiency does not exist; rather, only two direct relationships were found in the model, namely enjoyment→engagement and enjoyment→proficiency, highlighting the significant role of enjoyment in FL teaching and learning