ABSTRACT
Following the aim of the book to more adequately contextualize L2 study emotions, along with Ushioda’s (2009, 2011a, 2011b) long-standing pleas for more empirical work which considers social context, Chapter 4 introduces and then exemplifies a small-lens approach (Ushioda, 2015, 2016). The chapter works to display the benefits of looking in more detail at the emergence of emotionally significant experiences or critical incidents (Tripp, 1993) for a selection of learners as case studies. While focusing on a particular instance of emotionality, the analysis combines discursive data illuminating the social context with the experiential perspectives from introspective data of group members. The case presented reveals the non-linear emergence of emotional sensemaking. Although not the primary focus, the case also serves to uncover some of the teleological (or functional) dimensions of emotions in social situations.
