AN EXPLORATION OF EFL STUDENTS’ EMOTIONAL GEOGRAPHIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH SYNTAX

Abstract

The students’ emotional dimension is rarely acknowledged as an educational policy strategy for improving teaching and learning standards. However, emotions are an integral and foundational part of learning (Hargreaves, 2001). The emotional geography of students addresses the distance and/or closeness motives of their interactions and relationships, which configure the feelings and emotions they experience about themselves, each other, and the world. This present study thus aims to scrutinize undergraduate students’ emotions spatially and experientially, based on Hargreaves’ framework (2001), which focuses on five key components: socio-cultural geography, physical geography, moral geography, professional geography, and political geography, with respect to learning English syntax. In the meantime, a descriptive case study is employed in this research. The participants are English Education Department students at the State Islamic University of Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung. The data is gathered through interviews, then qualitatively analysed by using thematic analysis. The results show that the students encountered all five emotional geographies. It then emerged as both positive and negative emotions in the learning process. It was also disclosed that the students experienced more negative emotions than positive ones while learning English syntax. The learners’ negative emotions significantly hindered their learning and achievement, as they experienced disengagement in learning and did not achieve the highest classroom grade level based on their English syntax scores. This study ultimately has implications for both students and educators to be aware of the importance of emotional experiences in learning, with the aim of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning