Academic Emotions in English-Medium Instruction: A Person-Centred Analysis of Emotional Profiles and Student Satisfaction

Academic emotions constitute a central component of students’ learning processes and overall academic satisfaction. Within English-Medium Instruction (EMI) contexts, learning through a foreign language may modulate students’ emotional experiences in complex ways. However, limited research has examined emotional profiles among students enrolled in EMI programmes. This study adopts a person-centred approach to identify emotional profiles based on students’ achievement emotions and to examine whether these profiles differ in terms of learning satisfaction. Participants were 128 undergraduate students enrolled in a bilingual degree programme at a Spanish university. Emotions were measured using the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire—Short Version (AEQ-S), and a k-means cluster analysis was conducted. The results revealed two distinct profiles: a more adaptive emotional profile, characterized by higher levels of enjoyment, hope, and pride, and a negative emotional profile, marked by higher levels of anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, and boredom. Students in the adaptive profile reported significantly higher levels of satisfaction, with a large effect size. No significant association was found between emotional profiles and students’ self-reported English proficiency, gender, and academic year. These findings suggest that fostering positive emotions—particularly enjoyment—and reducing deactivating negative emotions such as boredom and hopelessness may be key to enhancing student satisfaction in EMI programmes. Educators and institutions are encouraged to design emotionally supportive learning environments, going beyond a sole focus on language proficiency.