Unveiling multilingual English learners’ perceptions about language-specific adversities and sufferings and their associated regulatory strategies: an existential positive psychology (EPP) perspective

Previous studies have extensively endorsed the complexities, difficulties, and emotional pressures on learners learning English. However, there is limited evidence on language-specific adversities and suffering experienced by multilingual English students. To fill this gap, relying on existential positive psychology (EPP), the current study examined a sample of 58 multilingual English students’ perceptions of language-specific adversities and sufferings and their associated regulatory strategies. A semi-structured interview was used to collect the data. The results of the thematic analysis indicated four common language-specific adversities and sufferings, namely ‘acquiring a new linguistic system’, ‘learning barriers and complexities of L2’, ‘experiencing negative emotions’, and ‘adopting new cultural norms and practices’. To regulate these adversities, the participants employed different ‘antecedent-focused’ and ‘response-focused’ regulation strategies. As for response-focused strategies, ‘situation avoidance’, ‘situation modification’, ‘cognitive reappraisal’, and ‘attention shift’ were the most common strategies to manage adversities and sufferings. On the other hand, ‘deep breathing’, ‘mindfulness practices’, ‘scaffolding strategies’, and ‘tolerance’ were the most frequently used response-focused strategies. The study discusses each finding in detail and presents some theoretical and practical implications for multilingual students, teachers, and policymakers to understand and regulate language-specific adversities and sufferings more effectively.