Identification and Analysis of Pupils' Emotions Towards English Course: The case of fourth year pupils at Hamdi A. Elhadi Middle school, Tlemcen.

Abstract

Pupils' performance, behavior, reactions towards school subjects and attitudes reflect their inner feelings and personal thoughts. Emotions are formed on the mental level i.e.in the brain. Feelings drive thinking, and the learning process requires thinking also. Thus, emotions and the learning process are linked together since they are calling for the same mental process ''thinking''. Pupils in foreign language context engage in unprecedented contextual activities and frequently come across different experiences. These features drive them to think, remember, memorize, believe, evaluate situational inputs, feel, and thus, build their personal thoughts which orient them. The aim of this work was to show how emotional mechanism influences foreign language learning process, pupils' cognition and shapes motivation. To reach this goal, an exploratory approach was followed in dealing with EFL middle school teachers and pupils of the fourth level. In this case study, qualitative and quantitative data were collected through a structured interview and a questionnaire. The obtained results revealed that classroom experiences and external factors influence pupils' beliefs; the latter evokes their positive and negative emotions which diminish or enhance their performance level. The final results that were reached by the end demonstrated that teachers' positive attitudes and emotional intelligence can re-orient pupils' and guide them to the right direction, since the external factors cannot be totally changed.