Emotionality plays a significant role in teaching and learning a foreign language. Emotions are always present in a foreign language classroom, and teachers and learners aim to determine how to regulate them (Bielak & Mystkowska-Wiertelak, 2020). In the literature on applied linguistics and psycholinguistics, the importance of emotions has been subject to considerable discussion (Dewaele, 2010; Pavlenko, 2006; Wierzbicka, 1999). We already know that students’ and teachers’ emotional needs should be discussed, understood, and met to develop (Aron, 2013; Mercer & Gregersen, 2020). Despite the importance of emotionality, there remains a paucity of evidence on language learners’ perceptions of emotions and emotionality. Researching perception seems to be an essential strategy for understanding any element influencing the affective dimension of a foreign language classroom, especially when we consider the psychological state of teachers and students due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the generally poor mental health that characterises young people from Generation Z. Thus, the primary aim of the following study was to analyse spoken definitions of emotionality, provided by Generation Z university students (N = 70). The analysis was conducted at the intersection of psycholinguistics and applied linguistics. It employed qualitative content analysis. The results show an informative picture of how GenZers talk about such personal issues as emotions, which will certainly be helpful for educators and researchers in the context of psycholinguistics and well-being research.
English