Keywords
Learner emotions
Emotion regulation
EFL
ESL
How to Cite
Abstract
With the emergence of Positive Psychology, research in EFL and ESL contexts has increasingly changed its focus from solely negative emotions, such as anxiety and stress, to positive ones including enjoyment, resilience, and well-being. Consequently, emotion regulation (ER) has emerged as a key psychological process supporting effective EFL and ESL learning. This study presents a systematic review of empirical research on ER in English language education contexts published over the last 15 years. The review examines ER studies in terms of their research focus, learning contexts, methodological designs, and ER strategies. The findings demonstrate that ER research in EFL and ESL contexts has mainly focused on higher education contexts and has largely employed quantitative and correlational research designs. Among studies, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression was the most frequently examined ER strategies, displaying the strong influence of Gross’s process model of emotion regulation. The reviewed studies consistently reported correlations between effective ER and positive emotional experiences, learner engagement, psychological well-being, and academic performance. Despite their scarcity, intervention-based and longitudinal studies provided promising evidence that ER can be developed through instructional practices, resulting in improvements in both emotional and language learning outcomes. The findings point out ER as a central component of effective and sustainable English language learning rather than an incidental affective factor. The review underlines the need for more longitudinal, intervention-based, and context-sensitive research to better understand how ER strategies can be explicitly taught and maintained across different EFL and ESL learning settings.
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