From Global to Local: Investigating the Role of Enjoyment and Anxiety in Interpreting Achievement

Enjoyment and anxiety play important roles in foreign language (FL) learning. However, little research has been conducted on their impact on key specific linguistic components (e.g., fluency, accuracy, and complexity), in the complex and higher‐order language skill of interpreting. This limits the in‐depth understanding of the roles of enjoyment and anxiety in the development of general language proficiency. To address this gap, this study examined the effects of these emotions on both global and local interpreting achievement (fluency, language quality, and information completeness), while controlling for cognitive confounders such as working memory (WM) and self‐perceived FL proficiency. We collected emotional and performance data from 192 Chinese college interpreting learners through interpreting enjoyment, anxiety, and self‐perceived FL proficiency questionnaires, as well as listening span and interpreting tests. Confirmatory factorial analysis and hierarchical regression analysis revealed that: (1) overall enjoyment positively predicted global performance, whereas overall anxiety showed no significant effects; (2) locally, enjoyment contributed to fluency and target language quality (encompassing accuracy and complexity), whereas anxiety negatively affected fluency, and neither emotion significantly influenced information completeness; and (3) among the sub‐dimensions of enjoyment and anxiety, “private enjoyment” emerged as a significant positive predictor of fluency and language quality, while “fear of interpreting class and negative evaluation” as a negative predictor of fluency. This study provides empirical evidence to the cognitive load theory framework and broaden‐and‐build theory in FL learning and generates pedagogical implications.