THE READING EMOTIONS AND MOTIVATION OF MIDDLE SCHOOL SPANISH 1 STUDENTS

Abstract

Motivating middle school students to read can be particularly challenging, especially in world language (WL) classrooms where students must engage with unfamiliar vocabulary, syntax, and cultural content. Research has shown that motivation to read often declines in adolescence, making it increasingly important to understand the emotional and motivational dimensions of reading during this developmental stage (Wigfield et al., 2015). Despite the relevance of these issues, few studies have explored how emotions and motivation may relate to reading comprehension in middle school WL contexts. This mixed-methods study sought to better understand how middle school Spanish 1 students experience reading emotionally and motivationally. Using in Control-Value Theory (Pekrun, 2006) and Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), the study involved 7th and 8th grade Spanish 1 students who completed an emotions survey, a motivation survey, and a reading comprehension assessment, with 10 students also participating in semi-structured interviews. Quantitative results revealed that students reported significantly more positive emotions than negative ones during reading. These positive emotions significantly predicted higher reading comprehension scores, suggesting that emotional experience may be closely tied to reading success in a world language. Although motivational variables did not significantly predict reading outcomes or emotions in the small matched subsample, positive trends emerged between intrinsic motivation and emotional engagement. Semi-structured interviews enriched these findings by revealing how classroom factors such as humor, peer interaction, and choice supported both emotional regulation and self-determined motivation. These findings suggest that fostering positive emotions may be a pathway to improved reading performance in WL education, and that classroom strategies promoting autonomy, competence, and relatedness may support this process. Furthermore, the study contributes to under-researched areas of K–12 WL education by emphasizing positive rather than negative emotions. This research aligns with Positive Psychology perspectives that highlight the role of positive experiences in learning (Olivera, 2025; Shahrokhi & Dehaghani, 2025). While motivation did not significantly predict reading in this small sample, emotionally supportive classroom practices appear to foster conditions in which motivation and comprehension can thrive. Future research should explore these relationships with larger participant pools and consider how Positive Psychology might unify CVT and SDT as a framework for emotionally and motivationally rich language instruction.