Learner attitudes as predicted by the congruence and incongruence between foreign language learners’ perceptions of their own and their teachers’ emotions

Drawing upon Pekrun’s Control-Value Theory (CVT, 2006, 2018) of achievement emotions and Gardner's Socio-Educational Model (2010), the current study examined the intricate nexus between perceived teacher emotions (PTE) and students’ self-reported achievement emotions (SE) and their in/congruent effects on the attitude towards the teacher (ATT). A total of 759 university students from [country blinded] (Mage= 21.07, SD = 3.59), enrolled in English classes, participated in this study. Structural equation modelling results yielded linear relationships between SE and the PTE as predictors of ATT, with SE and the PTE strongly, positively correlated (r = .63; p < .001). Response Surface Analysis (RSA) revealed a much more complex picture. That is, some emotion pairs (i.e., enjoyment, pride, anger, anxiety, and boredom) had linear effects on ATT while enjoyment, hope, pride and shame had non-linear effects on ATT. Furthermore, enjoyment, hope, pride, anger, anxiety, shame, boredom have congruence effects on ATT while enjoyment, hope, pride, and boredom were found to have incongruence effects. Anger and anxiety did not have any incongruence or non-linear effects. Theoretical and practical implications of these complex linear and non-linear findings are discussed.