Expressing emotions, discussing controversial issues: a pilot study focused on veganism

ABSTRACT

The role of emotions in learning has been the focus of much debate in teaching circles, as has the question of discussing controversial issues in the classroom. The aim of this small-scale inquiry was to investigate how two groups of intermediate level students of French as a foreign language expressed emotion in discussing the controversial issue of veganism. Our analysis focuses on the notions of ‘emotion lexicon’ and ‘rich point’ in exploring the video recordings of two classes engaged in discussion. We highlight how the students used a range of means to contribute to the discussion; their emotion lexicon appeared to be relatively limited but they made use of interactional and non-verbal means and communicated their feelings through the exchange of personal anecdotes and testimonies. We frame our approach within the tenets of critical pedagogy, and show how discussion of a controversial issue can trigger students’ engagement and further reflection. We conclude by emphasising the important role of the teacher, probably best fulfilled as a neutral guide in the discussion.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotion
• emotion lexicon
• rich point
• controversial issues in foreign language classes
• critical pedagogy

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the USN teachers who participated in the experiment: Donatienne Woerly, Nathalie Borgé, Paola Gamboa and Aniko Palfalvi.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Throughout this article, we use the standard acronym FLE to refer to français langue étrangère (French as a foreign language).

2 One of the objectives of the research was to explore the intercultural dimension when comparing both studies. However, our discussion here focuses on the second study at the Sorbonne Nouvelle since the University of Cyprus was not able to obtain the bioethics permit in time to explore the videos of the classes.

3 Veganism was particularly relevant for the Cypriot context since the food culture is mainly based on meat and animal rights are respected with great difficulties. It was therefore a topic which was well suited when adopting a critical pedagogy approach since such a topic can encourage students to be critically engaged with their reality. As noted above, one of the objectives of the project was to compare the reactions of Cypriot students with reactions in the multinational group studying in France but following the same teaching intervention.

4 Véron first explains that she had once been a ‘meat eater’, and then discusses and refutes the arguments justifying speciesism, pointing out, for example, that our hierarchy of animals – distinguishing those we consider as pets and those that we eat in European countries – is based on socially constructed categories that may vary according to culture and point in time.

5 The ReporTerre Journal is a French ecological magazine which is well known in this field.

6 The digital tool Padlet makes it possible to share documents on a virtual wall, these documents being reflections written by the students, sharing of photos or videos, etc.; these modalities make it a playful and versatile didactic tool (Bonaventure and Tan 2021).