Emotional CALL: Reframing technology-mediated language learning

Abstract

Research on emotions has become one of the most vibrant areas of inquiry in second language acquisition, yet its integration into computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has remained uneven. While anxiety has received sustained attention in CALL research, other emotions, both positive (such as enjoyment or hope) and negative emotions (such as boredom or shame), along with affectively relevant constructs such as flow, belongingness, and emotional engagement, have only recently begun to receive the systematic attention they deserve. Emotional CALL represents an emerging area of inquiry that places emotions at the center of how technology-mediated language learning is theorized, investigated, designed, and evaluated. Emotional CALL does not refer to a single technology, method, or chronological stage. Rather, it signals a contemporary affective turn in CALL in which emotions are understood as dynamic, socially situated, task-sensitive, technologically mediated, and pedagogically consequential processes. AI-mediated language learning gives this agenda particular urgency but does not exhaust its scope. Developments in L2 emotion research, individual differences in CALL, and recent empirical work in technology-mediated language learning provide the basis for outlining the conceptual foundations of Emotional CALL and proposing a working framework for future inquiry. The central argument is that technology-mediated language learning cannot be fully understood without attention to how learners and teachers emotionally experience digital environments. Emotional CALL therefore examines how emotions interact with appraisals, engagement, willingness to communicate, cognitive load, identity, and performance, and how pedagogical design can support emotionally responsive CALL.