The Influence of Emotion Based Language Instruction on Speaking and Writing Skills among EFL learners: An Empirical Study

Effective learning is the ultimate goal in every educational system, which can be achieved by considering the intertwined relationships of both cognitive and affective procedures. In line with this argument, this study intends to shed light on the impact of Emotion Based Language Instruction (EBLI) in enhancing teaching productive skills (speaking and writing) to EFL students. To do so, Quasi-Experimental Study was carried out among Iranian English as foreign language (EFL) students. The learning materials and the supplementary parts were selectively developed based on the Metric of Emotioncy designed by Pishghadam (2016). To observe the influence of EBLI, the differences in scores of pre and posttest of IELTS were statistically calculated. The results displayed a significant change in speaking and writing skills among students in the experimental group. The findings of the present study may foster EBLI implementation and increase the related knowledge in teaching foreign/second languages.


Introduction 1
In the fast-paced and ever-changing world, there is a considerable attentiveness in learning a second language. Language learning involves four basic skills namely, speaking, listening, reading, and writing. These skills are subdivided into two categories: productive or active skills and receptive or passive skills (Harmer, 2007). Reading and listening are considered as receptive skills, and learners are not required to produce language; they are input receiver. In contrast, speaking and writing are regarded as productive or active skills, and require the learners to produce language by themselves (Brown, 2007). Thus, speaking and writing seem more demanding and challenging for the learners, since they should transfer their competencies into performance and generate spoken or written messages. To simplify the task of learning, over the years, approaches and methods for teaching speaking and writing have gone through a myriad of changes (Brown, 2007;Nation, 2009;Nation & Newton, 2009).
It almost goes without saying that the knowledge of vocabulary is of great importance to improve second/foreign language proficiency (Decarrico, 2001;Nation, 2009). Notably, the importance of this source of knowledge could be felt more in mastering productive skills, because without vocabulary knowledge as the building block of language, learners are not able to construct language messages. In this regard, two primary questions a language teacher faces maybe what types of vocabularies are better to teach (Pishghadam & Shayesteh, 2017), and how to teach them effectively. Consistent with this argument, 1 Published by Al-KindiCenter for Research and Development. Copyright (c) the author(s). This is an open access article under CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Widdowson (1978) contended that the criteria for vocabulary teaching are frequency and prototype. Driven by the same concern, cultural factors (Gairns & Redman, 1989), and learnability (McCarthy, 1990) are among the elements referred to as criteria for vocabulary teaching (Pishghadam & Shayesteh, 2017). This underpins the fact that all of the techniques and approaches for vocabulary teaching should be well-balanced in a way that provides an appropriate situation for incidental and deliberate word learning (Baleghizadeh, 2016). Some vocabularies may be absorbed much easier and quicker, caused by a higher level of emotioncy. The term emotioncy refers to an amalgam of emotion and frequency of the exposure to various senses . As Pishghadam and Shayesteh (2016) put it, individuals experience different emotions in confronting a novel concept. This experience is much more highlighted in learning a second/foreign language, because L1 emotions are carried into the L2/Ln learning context by students. Furthermore, Shahian et al. (2017) claim that learning a new word is difficult when a word conveys little or no emotion. EBLI is based on emotionalism (Pishghadam, Adamson et al., 2013); in emotionalisation, the crucial role of prior emotion is emphasized. Considering the abovementioned objectives and to shed more light on this novel concept "emotioncy" in practice, this study sets out to answer the following research question: Research Question: How does EBLI improve EFL learners' speaking and writing skills?

Emotion-Based Language Instruction (EBLI)
Emotion-Based Language Instruction (EBLI) as a novel approach to the second language (L2) acquisition assumes that various language entities (e.g., vocabularies) cause a different degree of emotion; the stronger this emotion is the faster and deeper learners can learn . EBLI focuses on emotional competency in learners. That is, prior emotion is highlighted in EBLI. According to Pishghadam, Adamson, et al. (2013) the input should be based on vocabularies with which the students have an already-established emotional relationship. These vocabularies should be a little beyond their levels of emotioncy.
Leafing through literature, reveals three primary classifications into language learning domains: behavioristic, cognitive, and social (Brown, 2007). EBLI, the emotional movement, is a new approach to this classification, which is inspired by Greenspan's Developmental Individual-Difference Relationship-Based (DIR) model of language acquisition (1992). It highlights the critical role of early interactive emotional experiences between children and their parents or babysitter as well as its significant result in cognitive development. According to Greenspan (1992), language acquisition is an intertwined process of emotional interactions and cognitive functioning. That is, language development is a product of affective transformations enhancing children to create meaningful symbols through self-regulatory actions, communication, and social interaction (Greenspan and Lewis, 2005). In other words, affect gives flavor to whatever children do to perceive the world.
Words as the basis of language formation are not neutral; they convey different emotions. For instance, in first language acquisition words like "mommy" and "daddy" are learned quickly not just due to their high frequencies but also via the emotions (love, peace, happiness, hope, etc.) that are conveyed with these terms (Greenspan & Shanker, 2004). Moreover, emotional experiences can be applied to semantics as well as syntax. The word, "more" for instance, reminds children of quantity and something tasty (Shanker & Greenspan, 2005). Considering first language acquisition, children attempt to use a word referring to the unknown world while in second/foreign language learning context-just the opposite occurs . To be more specific, in L2 learning context children lack suitable words referring to the world information transferred from L1 experiences (Greenspan, 2001). In this situation, learners make use of their previous experiences to learn new materials (Son & Goldstone, 2009). That means they link the vocabularies of the first and the second language; the more the level of their emotioncy (emotion + frequency) is, the more natural and comfortable they can learn . In this regard, Pishghadam, Adamson, et al. (2013) introduce three pivot constituents to the related literature: Emotioncy, Emotionalization, and Inter-emotionality, which are discussed in the following parts.

Emotioncy
Emotioncy, a new term coined by , refers to the sense-induced emotions caused by different language entities. According to Pishghadam (2015), emotioncy rests on the sensory constructivism theory-a recently developed dimension of constructivism, as an alternative to cognitive constructivism (Piaget, 1959) as well as social constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978). Emotioncy refers to the amalgamation of emotion and frequency of the emotions, which are evoked by the senses . Based on the concept of emotioncy, some entities are learned easier and faster due to being exposed to different senses. To expand this horizon, Pishghadam (2015) posits emotioncy on a continuum: null, auditory, visual, kinesthetic, inner, and arch emotioncies. According to this figure, emotioncy can range from Avolvement (null emotioncy), to Exvolvement engaging learners from outside (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic emotioncies), and eventually to Involvement engaging learners from inside (inner and arch emotioncies). In this vein, Pishghadam (2015) grouped learners into three: avolved (null emotioncy), exvolved (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic emotioncies), and involved (inner and arch emotioncies). Emotioncy should be of utmost focus in the realm of education due to its role in joining emotion, cognition, world knowledge, and schemata needs. In this regard, Pishghadam (2016) introduces the educational emotioncy pyramid (figure1), magnifying the role of senses in the educational system. As Pishghadam (2016) puts it, learners are in a state of disequilibrium (null emotioncy) in the beginning and their first learning gained through the sense of hearing (auditory sense) as teachers start teaching through talking about the subject matter. With audio-visual information such as power point slides, and short movies, learners ' sense of sight besides hearing is involved. Entangling senses such as touch, movement, sight, and hearing (kinesthetic emotioncy level) in activities like role plays, enable learners to comprehend new meanings. Then, by providing different autonomous tasks, learners move a step forward (inner emotioncy level) and have the chance to experience reality. The tip of educational emotioncy pyramid-arch emotioncy-facilitates understanding different layers of meanings.

Emotions and Teaching Productive Skills
In the era of technology, learning a new language is an indispensable component of each person's life. Mostly, second/foreign language learning happens in academic settings such as schools and language institutes. Classrooms as the center of the academic world are emotional places (Pekrun, 2014) influencing learners' performance, identity development, motivation, and success (Schutz & Pekrun, 2007). The advances in the humanistic approaches (Mendez Lopez and Pea Aguilar, 2013) provide a new horizon in the realm of education and, in turn, leading to significant attention to emotional states and affective factors. This is due to the fact that, emotions are among the most influential factors in the development and effectiveness of teaching and learning. Teachers, as the center of educational systems, are like a bridge between knowledge and the learners (Heydarnejad, Hosseini Fatemi, & Ghonsooli, 2017). While teaching, they are exposed to various pleasant and unpleasant emotions. Effective teachers are those who are capable of regulating their emotions; they are mostly motivated teachers. Motivation immunizes language teachers productively which in turn enhances their effectiveness and promotes their students' achievement.
Considering learners' emotions, Ismail (2015) emphasized the salient function of both positive and negative emotions in their processes of learning and final achievement. Furthermore, Méndez Lopez and Pea Aguilar (2013) found that both positive and negative emotions influence foreign language learners' motivation. From another perspective, positive moods improve learners' performances in processing information (Febrilia et al., 2011), and enhances retrieval of long-term memory (Isen & Patrick, 1983). In this respect, Pishghadam, Adamson, et al. (2013) claim that EBLT facilitates learning by entangling emotincy; the stronger it is, the better the conclusion will be. Speaking and writing are called productive skills because learners are responsible for producing language themselves (Harmer, 2007). Capability in these skills is due to many factors such as knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, discourse, culture, as well as sociolinguistics (Chastain, 1998). Speaking is supposed to be the product of choosing suitable vocabulary and grammatical structure to express the intended meaning. Writing, the next productive skill depends on many factors. This challenging language skill requires linguistic knowledge, grammar, vocabulary, and thinking strategies (Yavuz-Erkan and İflazoğlu-Saban, 2011). In the same vein, Hidayati (2018) refers to external and internal challenges in teaching English writing skill. The external challenges can be teaching facilities, the class condition and time while the internal ones include motivation, reading habits of the students, native language interference, and linguistic competence. In addition, McLeod (1987) described writing as an emotional and cognitive activity. Since "No one is a 'native speaker' of writing" (Leki, 1992, p. 10), writing is to be assumed as an intimidating task both for native as well as for non-natives, in particular EFL learners (Cheung, 2016).
A cursory look at the literature shows a growing attentiveness toward the momentous role of emotions in language learning success in recent years. For instance, Pishghadam (2009) examined the influence of emotional and verbal intelligence on the achievement of English learners. The result of this study demonstrated that emotional intelligence is a subsidiary in learning different skills, especially, productive ones. In another research, Gupta and Woldemariam (2011) studied the effects of motivation and attitudes on the use of the writing strategy in an EFL environment. Their findings showed that learners' high motivation resulted in a high level of confidence, and, consequently a positive attitude towards using writing strategies. Besides, emotional intelligence enhancement influences on developing speaking skill in EFL learning settings were examined by Ebrahimi, Khoshsima, Zare Behtash, and Heydarnejad (2018). Based on this research, significant improvement in speaking is achieved by considering the role of emotional intelligence in improving speaking ability. Also, in another study by Jajarmi and Pishghadam (2019), the effect of EBLI on the long-term memory (LTM) vocabulary retention of Iranian EFL learners were investigated. Their findings show remarkable progress in cognition and memory enhancement due to the crucial role of senses in learning.

Methodology
The current research was designed in the 'Quasi-Experimental Study' design. A pre and post-test of IELTS were utilized to detect the development of the university students both at the beginning and at the end of the experiment in the educational year during which EBLI has been applied to teaching productive skills.

Participants
The participants of the present study composed of 62 Freshmen EFL learners studying at the University of Gonabad, a city in Northeast of Iran. It is assumed that participants are almost at a similar level of English competence because they are screened based on a national university entrance exam. Nevertheless, to ascertain the homogeneity of proficiency and to get a more profound insight, the researchers administered an Interchange Placement Test at the beginning of this research. The profile of the participants goes as follows: Their age varied from 18 to 21. The experimental group comprised 32 learners (13 male and 19 female); in the control group, there were 13 males and 17 females. The students in the experimental group majored in English Literature, while the control group comprised learners who majored in TEFL. Based on the participants' confirmation, none of them had attended conversation classes before. Thus, the proficiency of the participants was similar at the beginning of the study.

Instruments
IELTS test was utilized for pre and posttest of productive skills (speaking and writing skills). Then, to ensure the reliability of the scores, they were rated by three raters. Finally, the average score for each student was considered. To test the proficiency of the students, Interchange Placement Test was used, and for pre and post-test IELTS test was utilized. Also, the Metric for Measuring Emotioncy (Pishghadam, 2016, figure 2& 3) was applied to adopt vocabularies based on learners' emotioncy. This scale contains three parts. The sense facet (consisted of null = 0 point, auditory = 1 point, visual = 2 points, kinesthetic = 3 points, inner = 4 points, and arch = 5 points), the emotion facet (in a form of a 5-point Likert scale, considering learners' feelings toward the hypothesized situation), and the frequency facet which intended to assess learners' amount of exposure to the situation.  Pishghadam (2015) claims that emotioncy extends on a grading order of null, auditory, visual, kinaesthetic, inner, and arch emotioncies. According to the concept of emotioncy, learners repeat and remember vocabularies as they recall some feelings and emotions for them. So, to calculate emotioncy score, the sense score is multiplied by the summation of emotion and frequency scores (Pishghadam & Abbasnejad, 2017).

Procedure
This study was conducted at the University of Gonabad, Khorasan-Razavi province, during one educational year (2018-2019). To ensure the homogeneity of the learners, the interchange placement test was administered by the researchers of this study. Then, to estimate the university students' abilities in speaking and writing skills (productive skills) they participated in the IELTS test carried out by researchers. Next, the participants were acquainted with the Metric for Measuring Emotioncy and how to use it. Also, some instruction was given on emotioncy and how to facilitate their learning by the help of emotions evoked by senses. During the two semesters, teaching was done based on Emotion Based Language Instruction in the experimental group. To do so, the teacher provided many emotional words, expressions, collocations, and idioms in selected or developed passages with emphasis on emotional experiences, conveyed from their L1. Learners in the control group received regular instruction and no modifications were applied on their books.

Results
In the following, descriptive statistics for the experimental and control groups are presented. Maximum 6.00 6.00 6.00 6.00 As indicated in Table 1. the range of scores in pre and post-test of speaking skill for the control group are as follows: 4.00 to 6.00 and 4.50 to 6.00, respectively. In the writing test, the range of scores of the control group was from 4.00 to 6.00. For speaking and writing of the experimental group, the same ranges were observed. Although descriptive statistics results displayed significant improvement from pretest to posttest for the experimental group, to test the statistical significance of the findings independent samples t-test was run. To check the normality of the data Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was run ( Table 2).  To compare the scores of experimental and control groups, t-test was run. Based on Levine's test findings, the level of significance for the variance of the two groups is .51 for the pre-test of speaking, more than .05; therefore, it is indicated that the two groups are of equal variance. In the pre-test of speaking, the obtained level of significance for the means of the two groups is .74, bigger than .05, so it can be inferred that there is no significant difference in the pre-test of speaking in both control and experimental group.

Figure 5: Comparing Writing Skill in Control and Experimental Group
Moreover, the two groups show equal variance in the post-test of speaking based on the Levene's test of equality of variance.
In the post-test of speaking, the obtained value for the means of the two groups is .00, smaller than .05, which shows a significant difference between the post-test of speaking in control and experimental group.
Considering pre-test of writing, the level of significance for the variance of the two groups was .259, more than .05; thus, the variance of the two groups is equal. Furthermore, in pre-test of writing, the level of significance is .520, less than .05; therefore, the difference between the control and experimental group was not significant. In addition, considering the post-test of writing, the level of significance for the variance of the two groups was .221, more than.05; consequently, the variance of the two groups is equal. The level of significance for the means of the two groups in the post-test of writing is .045, less than .05; therefore, the difference between control and experimental group was not significant. According to table 4, comparing speaking scores, the difference between pre and post-test in the control group is not significant. Considering writing scores in the control group, in both pre-test and post-test, the level of significance is .536 and above .05; therefore, no significant difference between pre and post-test of writing in the control group is inferred. This table also presents the level of significance for comparing speaking scores in the pre-test and post-test of the experimental group, which is .000 and below .05. Based on this result, in the experimental group, there is a significant difference between pre and post-test of speaking. Also, the level of significance for comparing writing scores in pre-test and post-test of the experimental group is .003 and is less than .05. Thus, in the experimental group, there is a significant difference between pre and post-test of writing.

Discussion
The present study aimed at delving into the possible influences of EBLI on productive skills (speaking and writing) among Iranian EFL learners. The results indicated that emphasis on vocabularies with a higher amount of emotioncy and the role of affective factors would enhance language learning and teaching, especially productive skills. According to the findings, significant development was shown both in speaking and writing skills in the experimental group in comparison to the control group, which although displayed some development, it was not statistically significant. In this investigation, it was attempted to choose vocabularies based on Pishghadam Metric (2016) and incorporate activities to encourage learners to engage in different activities emotionally. The findings demonstrated that involving the learners in the intake of receptive vocabulary use in EBLI can enhance productive vocabulary use and consequently progress in speaking and writing. This is in accord with the findings of some previous studies which emphasize the role of emotions and EI on the development of language skills. For instance, Soodmand Afshar and Rahimi (2016) studied the interplay among reflective thinking, emotional intelligence (EI), and speaking ability in Iranian EFL learning context. According to their results, EI is a significantly strong predictor of speaking ability. In another survey by Khooei (2014), the relation of emotional intelligence to oral task fluency, accuracy, and complexity among Iranian EFL learners was investigated. Based on this study, there is a positive relationship between EI and oral task accuracy, fluency, as well as complexity among Iranian EFL learners. The outcomes of this study also confirmed the findings of a recent study on the influence of applying emotion-based language instruction in teaching oral skills to EFL university students (Heydarnejad, Ebrahimi, & Adel, 2019). This research revealed significant improvement both in speaking and listening skills in the experimental group due to the effects of EBLI. Furthermore, some empirical research like that of Genç et al. (2016) is supported by the present study. They showed a positive and close relation between EQ and productive language skills. The obtained result is also in line with that of Makiabadi et al. (2019), who supported a significant positive correlation between all three types of sensory emotioncy and the subscales of WTC as an avenue to EFL learning achievement. Furthermore, the current research provides solid evidence for Brand's theory (1989), who theorized that writing skill is determined by emotions in all processes, from beginning to the final product. Based on this theory, writing is an affective as well as a cognitive process and can be progressed when their intertwined relationships are attended. Actually, writing is an intricate task requiring the concurrent amalgamation of various strategies and different mental resources (Mason, Harris, & Graham, 2011). It is a complicated and demanding skill calling for more attention, particularly in second/ foreign language context. Considering the importance of writing in sharing beliefs, thoughts, and feelings (Samanian & Roohani, 2018), it is crucial to remove some of these obstacles, which concluded to was successfully done through EBLI in the present experimental study.
In line with the findings of the present study, Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) indicated that learners with higher levels of writing anxiety write shorter compositions while pleasant emotions like motivation, engagement, and hope generate more ideas and facilitate the ability of elaboration both in speaking and writing. In a foreign language learning context, learners may experience anxiety, which is characterized by worry and feelings of uneasiness. It might be best, therefore, to apply EBLI, which could capture the dynamic nature of affect and change this anxious and stressful situation. In EBLI, every factor which may influence learners' emotions is conspired to provide a secure environment for optimal learning. Also, considering the fact that emotions are influential in cognitive processes such as perception and memory (Parkinson et al., 1996), and bearing in the mind that in a classroom, learners experience different emotions (Pekrun, 2014, p. 6), caring language learners' emotional health is of great importance. As Mogg and Bradley (1999) stipulated, stimulus associated with emotions is remembered better than stimulus, which is unemotional. Moreover, intense emotions enhance memory to remember more details (Heuer & Reisberg, 1992). These findings are compatible with the main aim of EBLI, which emphasizes the crucial part of emotions in the whole process of teaching and learning. In other words, EBLI, as a new perspective in language teaching, accentuates the role of senses as information channels connecting individuals to the social and physical environment (Pishghadam & Shayesteh, 2017). In effect, learning especially, language learning must be considered, as an emotional endeavor.

Conclusion
This study was an attempt to contribute to the sparse knowledge on EBLI and its possible influence on speaking and writing skills among EFL learners. Taken together, the results of the current study led to this conclusion that considering learners' emotions along with their progress in cognition and metacognition is critical in the process of successful language learning and teaching. The implications of the findings may redound to the benefit of teacher educators, curriculum developers, policymakers, material developers, researchers, as well as EFL teachers. This paper, also provides curriculum developers and policymakers with a new window into developing and implementing EBLI approach in L2 learning in particular at university. It is suggested to provide EFL teachers the knowledge and materials necessary to implement EBLI in their classes by preservice/in-service teacher training programs, as well as teacher training courses (TTC). Furthermore, recent studies have indicated that EFL teachers' emotions are directly related to their teaching success (Chen, 2019); therefore, it is recommended to make teachers aware of the benefits of critically and reflectively investigation of their emotional experiences during teaching experiences and seek ways to raise their emotional competencies. Likewise, it is suggested to make learners aware of the advantages of emotion regulation, EQ, emotioncy of vocabularies, and reflectivity to maximize learner engagement with language learning (Davoudi & Heydarnejad, 2020) and upgrade the final outcome. Such awareness may help to develop autonomous learners responsible for their own education. For further research, this study can be replicated with a broader population from different socio-cultural backgrounds to ensure generalizability.
Funding : This research received no external funding.