Emotional words

Emotional words are assumed to have a processing advantage over neutral words due to their emotional content. Meanwhile, this advantage depends on other word features such as frequency and the characteristics of the processor and context of learning. Accordingly, the current study investigated the simultaneous impacts of L2 words’ emotional valence and frequency, and L2 user’s gender on word recognition time in a natural reading context. 43 intermediate EFL learners read 36 sentences in a coherent text for comprehension while their eye movements were recorded by eye-tracker. The findings revealed that participants processed the positive, negative, and neutral words identically based on eye fixation time. However, the frequency effect was attained for both valenced and neutral words. Also, no significant gender differences were approved in terms of recognition time though male participants tended to process all word types slightly faster than female ones. The lack of processing difference between valenced and neutral words is attributed to the disembodiment of L2 emotional words and learning experience of the participants as late EFL learners. These learners have been deprived of affective socialization and the affective sensory experience in their development of L2 emotional words. The absence of valence/frequency interaction is attributed to the L1/L2 relationship in terms of the target words. Although witnessed gender effect did not reach a significance level, it is suggested that the processing of emotional words be viewed in a multidimensional framework where the characteristics of the word, the processor, and the learning context are taken into account

Diction conveys a wide array of meanings of which formality and emotionality are only two facets. Researchers have investigated various features of written discourse to capture discourse variation in L1 and L2 writings. Likewise, the present ex-post-facto study compared the formality and emotionality of diction in general and emotional English and Farsi texts produced by 20 MA students at Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch. Having verified the initial homogeneity of the participants, we required them to write four paragraphs, two in English and two in Farsi, on a general and an emotional topic. The formality of the words in English texts was determined based on Webster’s Dictionary. Further, the positive and negative emotion words used in English and Farsi texts were measured based on the definitions offered by Pennebaker and King (1999).The results of the statistical analyses revealed no significant difference in the formality of the words used by the participants in general and emotional English texts. The comparison of the research data, however, indicated significant differences in the use of emotion words in general and emotional English and Farsi texts. The findings underscore the need for raising learners’ awareness of the role diction can play in writing.