BEHIND THE SCREEN: EFL TEACHERS’ EMOTIONS AND AGENCY IN TEACHING WRITING FOR ADULT LEARNERS
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The present study explores the emotions of EFL teachers and how they exercised agency to implement online L2 writing instruction for adult learners. Seventeen Vietnamese EFL teachers with prior experience teaching online L2 writing for distance English Bachelor classes were recruited on a voluntary basis. Each was interviewed twice in a semi-structured format to probe into their experienced emotions and enacted agency in online L2 writing instruction. The results revealed a wide spectrum of (un)pleasant emotions that the teachers experienced and particularly, the interdependent relationship between teacher emotions and their enacted agency in different manifestations. Acting upon their emotions, the teachers agentively reshaped learner engagement beyond the verbal channel, and found contentment and joy through technological affordances, multimodal feedback giving, and ‘star’ learner engagement. However, learners’ misaligned and plagiarised texts featured as a plaguing issue that evoked intense emotional distress despite the (un)critical agency enacted. Interestingly, teachers’ “enlightened” agency in seeking meaning through the rich life stories and viewpoints conveyed in their adult learners’ writings were reported as bright moments amidst limited verbal interaction, a lack of social presence and plagiarism. Pedagogical implications for L2 writing instruction for adult learners are discussed.
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