How do emotions shape L2 speaking task performance? A trait-state approach to anxiety, enjoyment, and boredom

Purpose This study adopts a trait-state approach to examine the interrelationships among anxiety, enjoyment, and boredom, and their independent and relative contributions to L2 speaking task performance, assessed through a multifaceted analytical framework.Design The participants were 80 Chinese EFL university students with intermediate to upper-intermediate English proficiency. Data were collected using an L2 trait emotion scale, a picture narration task, a LexTALE lexical decision test, and a task emotion scale.Findings and Value Results showed that trait-level and task-specific anxiety and enjoyment were positively correlated, whereas trait-level and task-specific boredom were not significantly correlated. Moreover, trait foreign language anxiety (FLA), task-specific anxiety, and task-specific enjoyment significantly influenced L2 speaking performance, with anxiety hindering and enjoyment facilitating performance in distinct ways across varying dimensions. Specifically, trait FLA demonstrated the strongest relative contribution to overall task performance, whereas task-specific anxiety was the strongest predictor of fine-grained performance dimensions, consistently affecting major speech production processes. In contrast, task-specific enjoyment was primarily associated with performance related to the conceptualization processes and the overall task performance. The study advances existing research by demonstrating the differential roles of trait and state emotions in L2 speaking and offers pedagogical implications for supporting EFL learners' speaking development.