The Effects of Linguistic Context’s Emotional Valence on the Acquisition of Novel Vocabulary in EFL Learners
Objectives
Valence-laden inputs, regardless of their emotional polarity, tend to receive prioritised processing and thus
automatically attract and sustain attention more effectively than neutral ones. When it comes to language
acquisition, the Affective Embodiment Account (AEA) suggests that emotional valence facilitates the
grounding of word meanings by providing an embodied learning experience. Although research across diverse
methodologies and stimulus types points to emotional valence as a significant facilitator of vocabulary
acquisition, available evidence yields varied or conflicting conclusions. Additionally, little research has
investigated the impact of linguistic context’s emotional valence on the acquisition of new L2 words, with even
fewer studies examining the retention of vocabulary knowledge. The present study extends this line of enquiry
and addresses inconsistencies in existing literature by jointly exploring three dimensions of vocabulary
knowledge (form, denotative meaning, emotional meaning), offering insights into how emotional valence of
input exerts its facilitative effects. The primary research question is whether reading valence-laden L2 narratives
can lead to better learning and retention of L2 novel words in EFL learners.
Methodology
Adopting a within-subjects experimental design in an incidental learning paradigm, this study built on Dong et
al. (2024) and involved 74 Vietnamese EFL adult learners who were exposed to 30 novel adjectives through
reading 60 short English narratives of different valence conditions (20 positive, 20 negative, 20 neutral). The
reading materials were adapted from Dong et al. (2024) and were constructed to elicit distinct emotional
valences, validated through both computational analysis (BERT model) and human ratings. Learning was
assessed immediately and after a one-week delay through four tasks: speeded recognition (form), meaning
matching (denotative meaning), sentence completion (emotional meaning, immediate), and valence judgement
(emotional meaning, delayed). Generalised Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) was adopted as the primary analytic
approach for both accuracy and reaction time (RT) data.
Results
Results showed evidence of successful learning of all three aspects, with words encountered in the emotional
contexts, especially negative ones, outperforming those in the neutral contexts in both form recognition and
denotative meaning. However, these advantages had attenuated by the delayed test, suggesting contextual
valence’s limited effects on long- term retention of vocabulary knowledge. Results from the two measures of
emotional meaning acquisition revealed minimal sensitivity to the valence of context, with no differences in
performance across all conditions observed.
Discussion
The study suggests that emotional valence of linguistic context may facilitate early encoding but offer limited
benefits for sustained retention of vocabulary knowledge. Evidence for a valence asymmetry was observed, but
only in the immediate form recognition and meaning matching speed where negative contexts showed
significantly better facilitative effect than positive ones. This indicates that the presence of emotionality, rather
than the polarity of valence, may be the key driver of facilitation. Together, these findings indicate that the strategic integration of emotional content, especially clear, vivid, and carefully-framed negative scenarios, might
be a powerful tool for enhancing the initial encoding of new vocabulary in EFL contexts.
