Reimagining Language Education: The Power of Storytelling and Positive Engagement

Abstract This research investigated the adoption of the Case-Scenario Method (CSM) in second language learning, to show that this method boosts the motivation of the students and helps them to overcome their Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA). Drawing from research studies related to positive emotions theories, the present study aims to investigate the role of promoting positive emotions in students’ motivation. More specifically, it investigates whether encouraging positive emotions through storytelling strategies increases students’ motivation to continue the study of a foreign language. The research work, based on a mixed methods research approach, presents a case study of two groups of participants with the same level of language acquisition but in different settings to get comprehensive results. The results are based on classroom observation, participants’ semi-structured interviews, and students’ questionnaires and feedback questions. The first group consists of students from a secondary school in Austria in the traditional classroom, and the second group consists of students studying English online. The results of data gathered from the two case studies indicate that the unpredictable course of the activities and a supportive environment in the classrooms stimulate students' motivation to study a foreign language. Additionally, the result of the observation demonstrates that the sense of self-governance in the process of learning promoted the engagement, which in turn allowed students to be confident while presenting in English. By choosing these questions for the research work, we wanted to make a small contribution to show that education could be useful and fascinating.