ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 commences with a discussion of why thinking about emotions in additional language (L2) study is important as well as offering a definition of emotion itself and its various constituent components. Based on my contention that it is vital to understand why any researcher is interested in their empirical focus of choice, the chapter next turns to a narrative of my own emotional experiences with learning three additional languages and teaching English as a foreign language in Japan. Finally, I explain my perspective on using complexity thinking as a way to frame and develop my understandings. I argue that a complexity foundation affords a practical way to both push forward theoretical insights to the social nature of L2 study emotions and to make sense of classroom experiences as a teacher.
