Mediating Emotion Through Language: Emotional Awareness and Its Linguistic Realization in Preservice EFL Teachers’ Reflective Discourse Following Simulation-Based Learning

Abstract

This study examines how levels of emotional awareness are linguistically realized in preservice EFL teachers’ reflective discourse in a foreign language following simulation-based learning (SBL). The data consist of nine semi-structured interviews conducted in English approximately one month after an intercultural simulation workshop. Emotional awareness was assessed using the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), while linguistic realization was analyzed through an emotionally colored language perspective and a Systemic Functional Linguistics framework. The findings reveal three developmental profiles. Higher emotional awareness was associated with richer emotionally colored language and more frequent hypotactic structures, enabling participants to articulate complex and sometimes conflicting emotional perspectives. Intermediate levels showed more balanced clause organization and greater reliance on repetition as an intensification strategy, reflecting a transitional stage in which the ability to articulate emotionally complex professional experiences is still emerging. Lower levels were characterized by limited emotional vocabulary, frequent repetition, and reduced hypotaxis, indicating an initial stage in which the discursive repertoire has not yet developed. Overall, the findings suggest that emotional awareness and its linguistic realization develop in tandem, and the analysis of these patterns offers insight into preservice teachers’ evolving capacity to process emotionally complex professional experiences in a foreign language.

1. Introduction

Emotions play a central role in teachers’ professional development, shaping how preservice teachers interpret classroom experiences, construct professional identities, and engage in reflective practice (Moon, 1999; Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Flores & Day, 2006; Kelchtermans, 2005). Reflective discourse has become increasingly recognized as an important domain in language teachers’ education, one where such emotional processing becomes visible as teachers articulate, evaluate, and reinterpret professional experiences. Through reflection, preservice teachers make sense of emotionally charged situations they encounter in learning-to-teach contexts and begin to integrate these experiences into their emerging professional identities (Walkington, 2005; Tsybulsky & Muchnik-Rozanov, 2019; Muchnik-Rozanov & Tsybulsky, 2019; Flores & Day, 2006; Sutherland et al., 2010; Zembylas, 2001, 2003a, 2003b; Klein, 2008; Yuan & Lee, 2015).

In foreign language teacher education, however, reflective discourse is often generated in a language that is not the speakers’ first language. This creates a particular challenge: the articulation of emotional experience may depend not only on the individual’s level of emotional awareness but also on the linguistic resources available for expressing and structuring emotional meaning in the foreign language. For preservice teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), who are compelled to navigate emotionally demanding professional encounters through a language other than their own, this challenge assumes additional layers of cognitive and affective complexity (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014; Caldwell-Harris, 2014). Research in bilingual emotional processing suggests that using a foreign language often creates emotional distance and increases cognitive load, which can, in turn, hinder affect labeling and emotional processing (Vives et al., 2021; Morawetz et al., 2017). While identifying and verbalizing emotions typically facilitates emotional regulation, affect labeling in a foreign language may not produce the same regulatory effects and can even involve greater neural activation than labeling emotions in a native language (Vives et al., 2021). At the same time, bilingual speakers frequently report shifts in emotional intensity and expression when switching languages, reflecting the close interdependence between language and emotional experience (Williams et al., 2020). These findings underscore that language is not merely a vehicle for expressing emotions but a fundamental resource for emotional awareness, regulation, and interpersonal communication (Saarni, 2007).

Despite growing attention to the role of emotions in teacher education and the recognized role of language in shaping emotional awareness and expression, the research examining how emotional awareness is linguistically realized in preservice teachers’ reflective discourse produced in a foreign language is relatively limited. Existing studies have typically approached emotional awareness from psychological perspectives or have analyzed emotional language without systematically linking linguistic patterns to developmental models of emotional awareness. As a result, the relationship between levels of emotional awareness and their discursive realization in foreign language reflective discourse remains largely underexplored.

The present study addresses this deficiency by examining how different levels of emotional awareness are realized linguistically in preservice EFL teachers’ reflective discourse, produced in English as a foreign language. Specifically, the study combines the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) with a linguistic analysis of emotionally colored language and discourse organization to explore how psychological representations of emotion are reflected in discursive patterns. By integrating LEAS-based assessment of emotional awareness with discourse-level linguistic analysis, this study examines emotional awareness not only as a psychological capacity but also as a discursively realized phenomenon. Specifically, it maps LEAS-coded levels onto linguistic markers such as emotion-word use, linguistic intensification, and clause complexing to explore how emotional experience is articulated through the linguistic resources available to preservice teachers in a foreign language.

Accordingly, the study addresses the following research questions:

• RQ1. What levels of emotional awareness are manifested in preservice EFL teachers’ reflective discourse, as operationalized through the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS)?
• RQ2. How are these levels of emotional awareness realized linguistically in preservice teachers’ reflective discourse in English as a foreign language, in terms of emotionally colored language (emotion words and linguistic intensification) and discourse organization (clause complexing patterns)?

2. Literature Review

2.1. Emotional Awareness: A Cognitive-Developmental Perspective

Emotional awareness—the capacity to conceptualize and describe one’s own emotions and those of others—is treated within the cognitive-developmental tradition as a form of cognitive processing that varies in structural complexity across individuals (Lane & Schwartz, 1987). Drawing on Piagetian principles, Lane and Schwartz (1987) proposed five qualitatively distinct levels along a continuum—from global, undifferentiated experience to highly integrated emotional meaning. At Level 1, awareness is anchored in bodily sensations; Level 2 marks awareness of action tendencies; Level 3 involves recognition of single, discrete named emotions; Level 4 represents blends of emotions; and at Level 5, individuals articulate blends of complex, divergent states of feeling that differentiate between the emotional experiences of self and other (Lane & Schwartz, 1987; Lane et al., 1990).

The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) operationalizes this model by scoring written responses to interpersonal vignettes according to the structural level of emotional differentiation displayed, rather than the specific emotion words used (Lane et al., 1990). This scoring principle is significant: LEAS assessment captures the architecture of emotional thought rather than merely emotional vocabulary. Empirical studies consistently indicate that higher LEAS scores are associated with greater openness to experience, richer everyday emotional life, and more adaptive regulation strategies. Furthermore, higher emotional awareness predicts better outcomes in psychotherapy, suggesting that it constitutes a key mechanism of psychological change (Smith et al., 2019; Chhatwal & Lane, 2016). Crucially, Chhatwal and Lane (2016) conceptualize emotional awareness as both a relatively stable trait and a state-like capacity that fluctuates with arousal and context, a dual nature with direct implications for the design of emotionally demanding yet growth-promoting learning environments.

Applying the LEAS framework to spontaneous oral discourse in retrospective interviews introduces important methodological nuances. Reflective interview speech is co-constructed, shaped by interactional context, and subject to real-time production pressures (Halliday, 1978). At the same time, retrospective interviews conducted approximately one month after a significant professional experience capture emotional awareness in a vein that is simultaneously naturalistic and reflectively distanced, one that is a “reflection-on-action” (Schon, 1983). This temporal interval means that participants’ discourse reflects not only their immediate emotional responses but also subsequent processing, reinterpretation, and narrative integration, all of which are processes central to the consolidation of experiential learning (Kolb, 1984; Boud et al., 1985).

2.2. Emotions in Teacher Education and Professional Identity

Emotions occupy a central place in teachers’ professional lives and identities (Day, 2004; Kelchtermans, 2005; Timoštšuk & Ugaste, 2012). Preservice teachers’ experience of negative emotions (i.e., anxiety about classroom management, discomfort with cultural difference, distress at failing a student, etc.) can mark significant milestones in professional identity development as they confront challenges to their core beliefs about teaching (Cross & Hong, 2009; Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009). Equally, positive emotions validate and reinforce professional commitments, while negative emotions can hinder learning by reducing motivation and self-efficacy (Ruthig et al., 2007; Trigwell et al., 2012). Preservice teachers’ emotions are therefore best understood not as noise in the professional development process, but as integral signals about identity, values, and the trajectory of growth (Timoštšuk & Ugaste, 2010).

Recent research has further strengthened the view that language plays a constitutive role in emotional experience, rather than serving merely as a vehicle for its expression. Within psychological constructionist approaches, language is seen as a central resource through which emotional meaning is formed and interpreted (Lindquist et al., 2015). From this perspective, emotion concepts—supported by language—enable individuals to make sense of bodily and contextual information. More recent empirical work has extended this view, demonstrating that access to emotion-related language shapes emotion perception across cultural contexts (Leshin et al., 2024) and contributes to the regulation of emotional experience through processes such as linguistic distancing (Nook et al., 2024). In addition, developmental research suggests that emotion-specific vocabulary plays a key role in the emergence of emotional understanding (Grosse & Streubel, 2024). Taken together, these studies reinforce the view that language is not only involved in expressing emotions but is deeply implicated in how emotional meaning is constructed.

A growing strand of research foregrounds emotional self-awareness as a foundational professional competence rather than a personal attribute (Tsybulsky & Muchnik-Rozanov, 2023). Key findings indicate that preservice teachers reference emotional self-awareness more frequently than experienced teachers when reviewing simulation, reflecting the heightened identity questioning of early professional development. Gender patterns have also been observed: women report both positive emotions (relief, confidence) and negative emotions (stress, self-criticism) more frequently, and they also refer to emotional self-awareness more often than men (I. Levin et al., 2023).

From the perspective of the LEAS model, emotional self-awareness in teachers is a developmentally variable capacity: some teachers articulate only bodily sensations or vague impulses (Levels 1–2); others identify and name specific emotions (Level 3), hold multiple emotions simultaneously (Level 4), or differentiate their own complex states from those of students and parents in nuanced, integrated ways (Level 5). This developmental framing has direct implications for professional learning design, suggesting that one-size-fits-all approaches to emotional reflection are likely to either miss or overwhelm individual teachers’ processing capacities (Lane & Schwartz, 1987; Chhatwal & Lane, 2016). For EFL teachers specifically, the emotional demands of practice are compounded by the linguistic and cultural complexity of multilingual classrooms (Pavlenko, 2005; MacIntyre et al., 2019).

2.3. Personalized Continuing Professional Learning and Integrated Scaffolding

Traditional professional teacher development has been widely criticized for its one-size-fits-all character (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). Avidov-Ungar’s (2016) model of Personalized Continuing Professional Learning (PCPL) conceptualizes teachers’ professional growth in four interrelated dimensions—motivation, career stage, professional life story, and sense of empowerment—and advocates bottom-up processes in which teachers formulate their own learning goals. This framework aligns with self-directed learning traditions in adult education (Knowles, 1975; Garrison, 1997) and with evidence for sustained, situated, collaborative professional development (Vescio et al., 2008).

When emotional development is viewed through the PCPL lens, teacher emotional competence appears as an ongoing, individualized project. Integrating the LEAS framework with SFL-based linguistic analysis and the PCPL model provides a theoretically grounded roadmap for designing personalized professional development for preservice EFL teachers. The principle of targeting the next level from psychotherapy applications of the LEAS (Chhatwal & Lane, 2016) can be translated into teacher education practice by designing reflective tasks that meet participants at their current level of emotional awareness, and which support incremental progression. For participants operating primarily at LEAS Levels 1–2, facilitators can combine invitations to name specific feelings with linguistic modeling of hypotactic causal and concessive structures. For those already capable of identifying and blending emotions (Levels 3–4), prompts encouraging differentiation between self and other can be paired with attention to the syntactic resources through which those distinctions are made explicit. This integrated approach treats each teacher’s current profile of emotional awareness and linguistic resource as a starting point for individualized pathways—directly operationalizing Avidov-Ungar’s (2016) PCPL model and the evidence that calibrating emotional and cognitive challenge to the individual’s stretch zone is a precondition for transformative rather than merely confirmatory professional learning (Taitelbaum et al., 2008; Lane & Smith, 2021).

2.4. Simulation-Based Learning as a Socioemotional Laboratory

Simulation-based learning (SBL) in teacher education creates the conditions of the professional arena in an artificial environment, enabling learning and skill development without real-world consequences (Chernikova et al., 2020; Frei-Landau & Levin, 2023). The present study uses a clinical simulation model in which peers observe the interaction of a preservice teacher with a professional actor playing a confrontational parent. In contrast to real classroom placement, simulation allows for scenarios to be repeated, paused, and adjusted; participants can take risks and learn from mistakes; and the experience is designed to be followed by structured reflection (Kaufman & Ireland, 2019; Dotger, 2013).

A consensus exists in SBL literature whereby the reflective debriefing session following simulation, rather than the simulation itself, constitutes the most critical component of the learning experience (Husebo et al., 2015; Issenberg et al., 2005). It is important to distinguish this immediate post-simulation debriefing from the retrospective reflective interviews that constitute the primary data source of the present study. While debriefing is conducted in the immediate emotional aftermath of the simulation with a facilitator present to scaffold reflection, the interviews analyzed here were conducted approximately one month later, outside the institutional SBL context. This temporal and contextual gap shifts the nature of participants’ reflection toward a more distanced, narrative form of retrospective sense-making (Moon, 1999; Boud et al., 1985), capturing not live emotional responses, but retrospective professional narratives about an experience participants have had time to consolidate and integrate into their developing professional identities (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009).

Research on emotional outcomes of SBL presents a nuanced picture (O. Levin et al., 2025). On the positive side, the safe, controlled environment of simulation has been associated with decreased anxiety, balanced emotional experience, and enhanced self-efficacy (Bradley & Kendall, 2014; O. Levin & Flavian, 2022). I. Levin et al. (2023) identified three SBL learning outcome dimensions: cognitive (communication skills), behavioral (collaborative-learning insights), and emotional (emotional self-awareness), confirming that emotional growth is a legitimate and measurable SBL outcome. At the same time, SBL can generate negative experiences, including embarrassment from peer critique and performance anxiety under observation (Bautista & Boone, 2015). Drawing on Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning cycle and the Yerkes and Dodson (1908) inverted-U model, recent theory identifies a stretch zone in which moderate discomfort catalyzes learning, while escalating anxiety replaces reflection with defensive responses. The retrospective interview conducted one month later offers a window into how participants have processed and narratively integrated their stretch-zone experience, functioning as what Boud et al. (1985) termed “returning to experience”: a deliberate revisiting that allows emotional and cognitive residues to be manifested and incorporated into professional self-understanding.

2.5. Linguistic Analysis of Reflective Discourse: Clause Complexing and Professional Voice

The linguistic analysis component of the present study draws on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), which conceptualizes language as a meaning-making resource shaped by its social context (Halliday, 1978; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014). Within SFL, the system of taxis distinguishes two fundamental types of clausal interdependency: parataxis, in which clauses are related as equals through coordination or juxtaposition, and hypotaxis, in which one clause is dependent on and subordinated to another. Parataxis presents information in a relatively flat, coordinate structure, while hypotaxis hierarchizes information and encodes explicit logical relations such as cause, condition, concession, and temporal sequence. Halliday (1978) associates paratactic chaining with spoken mode, while hypotactic embedding is more characteristic of written and academically organized discourse.

At the same time, research on syntactic complexity in instructed foreign language contexts consistently treats subordination as a key dimension of interlanguage development (Norris & Ortega, 2009; Lu, 2011), while acknowledging that complexity, accuracy, and fluency involve trade-offs under real-time pressure (Ellis, 2009). For preservice EFL teachers, syntactic complexity is not merely a proficiency marker but a professional resource: the ability to construct hypotactic relations enables teachers to articulate pedagogical reasoning, express causality and conditionality in explanations, and model academically oriented discourse for learners (Walsh, 2006).

Together, these converging bodies of literature yield the central theoretical claims of the present study: that the spontaneous retrospective discourse generated by preservice EFL teachers in post-simulation interviews in a foreign language constitutes a cognitively, emotionally, and linguistically situated expression of their current professional development; and that this reflective discourse in a FL can serve both as a research object and as a platform for personalized professional development, scaffolded through targeted reflective interventions.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Participants and the Context of the Study

The study included nine preservice teachers (five Jewish and four Bedouin Arab; eight female and one male), whose individual profiles are presented in detail in Appendix E. The data were collected as part of a broader international collaboration between teacher-education institutions in China and Israel. Participants engaged in a jointly designed online multicultural clinical simulation workshop conducted in English, the shared foreign language of instruction. The workshop brought together Chinese and Israeli preservice EFL teachers in mixed intercultural groups, followed by individual semi-structured interviews in English.

While both groups participated in the broader simulation-based framework, the present analysis focuses on the Israeli subgroup; the Chinese data are being analyzed separately by our collaborators. Moreover, by focusing on a single teacher-education program, the study reduces any variability stemming from differences in institutional structures, curricular frameworks, and pedagogical models, thereby enhancing the interpretive validity of the analysis.

It should be noted, however, that restricting the dataset to one Israeli cohort does not eliminate sociocultural diversity. The Israeli subgroup itself demonstrated substantial internal heterogeneity, comprising four Bedouin Arab preservice teachers and five Jewish preservice teachers. The sample thus preserves meaningful cultural variation within a shared institutional and curricular context.

Ten Israeli preservice teachers initially participated in the workshop and interviews. One recording file was corrupted and did not meet the audio quality standards necessary for accurate transcription and coding. Consequently, to maintain the required methodological rigor, the final analytic sample consists of nine second-year preservice EFL students enrolled in an undergraduate teacher-education program.

The study was granted ethical approval (Approval No. 0266) from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Prior to participation, the participants were informed about the purpose and procedures of the study and signed informed consent forms confirming that their participation was voluntary and would not affect their academic grades.

Prior to participation, the participants were informed about the purpose and procedures of the study and signed informed consent forms confirming that their participation was voluntary and would not affect their academic grades.

3.2. Data Collection

Semi-structured interviews constitute the exclusive data source for the present study. Although the broader project included additional materials, the current analysis focuses solely on the interview data, as the research objective is not to examine the SBL itself but, rather, to investigate reflective discourse in English as a foreign language, focused on participants’ simulation workshop experience.

Interviews were conducted approximately one month after the workshop, allowing for reflective processing while maintaining experiential proximity. All interviews were conducted in English, recorded, and transcribed verbatim using standard English orthographic conventions. The protocol focused on participants’ reflections on their developing professional identities, their understanding of the English teacher’s role, and their interpretations of the intercultural encounter. This corpus enables systematic analysis of how emotional awareness is realized linguistically, including the use of emotionally colored language and syntactic structuring. The full interview protocol appears in Appendix D.

3.3. Data Analysis

The data were analyzed using the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS; Lane & Schwartz, 1987) in conjunction with linguistic analysis. The data were coded independently by both authors using the LEAS framework and the coding scheme presented in

Table 1. Coding Scheme for the Linguistic Analysis.

Main Category	Subcategory	Coding Method	Examples
Emotionally colored language	Emotion words (measuring the quality and degree of immersion in the discussed phenomenon or process).	The lexemes and stems listed under the category ‘positive and negative emotion words’ in the LIWC software dictionary (e.g., nice, confident, hurt, nasty, etc.). Positive and negative emotion terms are merged into one category.	“I used to hate English.” (ACH1A); “I’m happy that I can do that.” (ACH2A); “I really was shocked.” (ACH1B); “I have a lot of insecurities.” (ACH4A)
	Adverbial intensifiers	Adverbs indicating higher or lower intensity by emphasizing the strength of the experience.	“Very important”; “worked wonderfully”; “I was really interested”; “so glad”; “super quiet”.
	Repetition as intensification	Repeated lexical items, near-immediate repetition, or iterative restatement when repetition functions to intensify opinion, emotion, etc.	“No. No, not at all”. “I think, I think she tried” (ACH1A); “He did. He did mention many, many things.” (ACH5A)
Discourse organization	Parataxis	Clauses of equal status linked by coordination, such as and, but, so.	“We both talk different languages, and we both have different accents, and we both say the words differently, but we understood each other.” (ACH3A)
	Hypotaxis	Dependent/subordinate clauses as hypotactic, typically introduced by subordinators such as because, when, if, that, while	If my mom had had a little bit of time off work… maybe I could have done better.” (ACH2B) “I think it made me more sensitive to the fact that it’s okay.” (ACH2A)

Note. Underlined lexemes indicate the linguistic markers selected for analysis.

. In cases of disagreement, the segments were re-examined and discussed until consensus was reached. This procedure enhanced the reliability of the coding and strengthened the validity of the analysis.

3.3.1. Emotional Awareness

Emotional awareness was assessed using the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS; Lane & Schwartz, 1987), which is grounded in a cognitive-developmental framework integrating Piagetian and Wernerian perspectives. Within this model, emotional awareness is conceptualized as a form of cognitive processing that develops through hierarchical structural transformations. Rather than treating emotions as discrete traits, the LEAS operationalizes emotional awareness as the capacity to represent and differentiate affective states with increasing complexity and integration.

The LEAS distinguishes five levels of emotional awareness: (1) bodily sensations (e.g., tiredness, tension), (2) global or undifferentiated affective states or action tendencies (e.g., good, upset, feel like leaving), (3) discrete, single emotions (e.g., happy, angry), (4) differentiated blends of emotions (e.g., sad and disappointed), and (5) integrated blends that differentiate self and other (e.g., “I would feel frustrated, while the other person would feel relieved”). In the present study, LEAS coding provided a framework for examining the developmental level of emotional awareness as reflected in participants’ reflective discourse.

3.3.2. Linguistic Analysis

A distinctive methodological contribution of this study lies in integrating LEAS-based coding of emotional awareness with a fine-grained linguistic analysis of reflective discourse, allowing emotional awareness to be examined not only as a psychological construct but also as a discursive phenomenon. Specifically, levels of emotional awareness identified through LEAS were mapped onto linguistic markers in participants’ discourse to examine how particular linguistic resources are distributed and used to realize different levels of emotional awareness.

The analysis was conducted across the interviews in their entirety, with a focus on how emotional meaning is linguistically realized through participants’ expression of emotional experiences. The linguistic analysis examined the lexical realization of emotional expression in participants’ discourse by identifying and quantifying emotion words, coded according to the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) framework developed by Tausczik and Pennebaker (2010, p. 24) and Holmes et al. (2007). Accordingly, lexical items categorized in the LIWC dictionary were identified and counted. The percentage of emotion words in the total word count was then calculated for each participant to control for interview length. Because the present study did not examine the emotional valence of the subjects’ experience, positive and negative emotion terms were merged into a single category.

Furthermore, our analysis drew on Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday, 1994; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014) to examine lexical intensification as a marker of emotional intensity. Both interpersonally neutral intensifiers (e.g., very, really, quite) and evaluatively scaled forms (e.g., amazingly, unbelievably) were coded as intensifiers of experience portrayal. Repetition of lexical items was likewise treated as a means of intensification. The units of analysis were verbal and nominal groups, following SFL conventions (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014). Emotion words, adverbial intensifiers, and lexical repetitions were counted, after which their frequencies were converted into percentages of the total word count.

Finally, logical discourse organization was analyzed through the lens of Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014), with a focus on clause complexing under the logical metafunction. In Systemic Functional Linguistics, the clause complex constitutes the primary unit through which logical relations between clauses are realized, allowing speakers to structure experiential meaning through relations of dependency (hypotaxis) and equality (parataxis) (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014). Specifically, the analysis examined taxis relations (i.e., the degree of interdependency between clauses), distinguishing between parataxis (coordination between clauses of equal status) and hypotaxis (subordination establishing dependency relations).

Each interview transcript was segmented into clause complexes, and the clauses within each complex were coded for taxis relations, identifying coordinating structures (e.g., and, but) as paratactic and subordinating constructions as hypotactic (e.g., when, if). Each taxi type was calculated as a percentage of the total number of clauses in each individual participant’s discourse. It should be noted that taxi patterns were viewed as indicators of discourse organization and available linguistic resources rather than as markers of cognitive ability or overall FL proficiency.

The main categories, subcategories, coding method, and relevant examples are shown in Table 1.

4. Findings

Analysis of the interview corpus using the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS; Lane & Schwartz, 1987) revealed variability in the structural complexity of emotional representations across participants. Four students demonstrated high levels of emotional awareness (Levels 4–5), characterized by blended emotional states and, in several instances, references to multiple emotional perspectives. For example, one participant simultaneously described frustration toward a parent and compassion for the family’s possibly mitigating circumstances (“I do get frustrated. But ultimately you do not know what happens at home”), while another articulated contradictory evaluative emotion, noting that she felt “criticism and compassion… which kind of contradicts each other, but they do not really”. Instances of Level 5 awareness appeared in statements that referenced multiple emotional standpoints within the same situation, such as recognizing the possible pressures affecting parents while maintaining one’s own professional stance (“you do not know what is going on in people’s mind… usually something bothers them”) or considering whether a teacher’s responses were sincere or shaped by institutional expectations (“I wondered how many of them she really meant and how many were more for the protocol”). However, such instances of integrating the emotional states of self and others were generally brief and not consistently elaborated.

Three students demonstrated intermediate levels of emotional awareness (Levels 3–4). Their responses included explicit naming of emotions and occasional combinations of affective states, but showed less sustained understanding of multiple emotional viewpoints. Typical examples included references to single emotions, such as concern or surprise (“I am concerned about him”; “It was strange to me”), alongside emerging emotional blends, such as concern combined with professional attention (“I am concerned about him. That is so wrong”), or curiosity about cultural differences linked to educational intentions (“It encouraged me to learn about other cultures… I want my students to be more open”). In these cases, emotional experiences were articulated clearly but were not consistently expanded into multi-perspective representations.

Two students demonstrated the lowest levels of emotional awareness observed in the dataset (Level 2). For example, participants described impulses to act or improve professionally (“I still need to learn and to be more confident”; “I will show her evidence. I will take a video”), with only limited references to discrete emotions such as enjoyment or insecurity (“I have a lot of insecurities”; “I enjoyed talking to the Chinese student”). Instances of blended or multi-perspective emotional representations were minimal or absent entirely in these interviews.

Across the dataset, Level 4 (blends of emotions) emerged as the most frequently observed level of emotional awareness. Participants frequently combined two or more emotional states when describing their experiences, for example, linking shock with professional determination (“I really was shocked… we also need to teach you about our culture”), enjoyment with recognition of personal limitations (“I discovered one thing about myself that I am less patient… I will work on this”), or delight about one’s own cultural context alongside sympathy for others (“I was so glad and grateful… sometimes we feel we are giving much more than we are getting back”). Explicit references to bodily sensations corresponding to Level 1 were largely absent from the interview data. The findings related to LEAS levels are summarized in Appendix A.

Linguistic Analysis

The linguistic analysis examined participants’ emotionally colored language and discourse organization. Emotionally colored language was studied through the frequency of emotion words and the use of lexical intensification (both adverbial intensifiers and repetitions). Discourse organization was analyzed through studying the patterns of clause complexing, distinguishing between parataxis (coordination between clauses of equal status) and hypotaxis (subordination establishing dependency relations).

A distinctive methodological contribution of this study lies in integrating LEAS-based coding with linguistic analysis. Specifically, levels of emotional awareness were mapped onto linguistic distinctive markers in participants’ discourse to examine how particular linguistic resources are distributed and used to realize different levels of emotional awareness.

The four participants who demonstrated the highest levels of emotional awareness (Levels 4–5) exhibited a distinct pattern in their use of emotionally colored language and discourse organization. Among these participants, emotionally colored language appeared consistently in the form of adverbial intensifiers, lexical repetition, and emotion words. Adverbial intensification ranged from 1.92% to 3.05% of the total word count, while repetition-based intensification ranged from 1.78% to 2.70%. Affect and stance vocabulary occurred at comparable frequencies, ranging from 1.26% to 2.53%. The highest density of adverbial intensifiers (3.05%) and repetition (2.70%) was observed in one interview, while another participant demonstrated the highest proportion of affect vocabulary (2.53%). Across the four interviews, these resources appeared in relatively consistent proportions, with intensification devices typically accounting cumulatively for approximately 3.7–5.8% of the total words in each transcript. Among the students with the highest LEAS scores, adverbial intensifiers thus emerged as the most frequently used resource, followed by lexical repetition, while emotion-word use appeared at slightly lower but comparable frequencies.

In terms of discourse organization, the same participants’ discourse showed a consistent presence of subordination alongside coordination chains. The proportion of complex clauses (hypotaxis) ranged from 32.2% to 48.4% of all clauses, whereas coordination chains (parataxis) ranged from 19.2% to 23.1%, indicating a clear predominance of hypotactic organization, which occurred at approximately twice the frequency of parataxis. The highest level of hypotactic organization was observed in an interview where 48.4% of clauses were embedded within complex clause structures, followed by 44.9% in another interview. In contrast, coordination chains appeared with relatively similar frequencies throughout the dataset, accounting for roughly one-fifth of all clauses. Taken together, the discourse of participants with higher LEAS scores was characterized by substantial use of clause subordination combined with a stable presence of coordinated clause chains.

Among the three participants who demonstrated intermediate levels of emotional awareness, emotionally colored language was again realized through adverbial intensifiers, lexical repetition, and emotion words, although the distribution of these resources differed from that observed in the high-LEAS group. Lexical repetition emerged as the most frequently used resource, ranging from 3.03% to 3.87% of the total word count, and reaching 4.36% in one interview. Adverbial intensifiers occurred at slightly lower frequencies, ranging from 1.66% to 2.74%, while emotion words appeared with comparable but somewhat lower densities (1.96–2.42%). Overall, repetition-based intensification represented the most salient linguistic strategy in this group.

A different pattern also emerged in discourse organization. The proportion of complex clauses (hypotaxis) ranged from 25.8% to 36.6% of all clauses, whereas coordination chains (parataxis) ranged from 24.5% to 29.5%. Unlike the high-LEAS group, where hypotaxis clearly predominated, the distribution here was more balanced. In one interview, coordination chains (29.5%) slightly exceeded subordinate clause structures (25.8%), while in the other two interviews hypotaxis appeared somewhat more frequently (31.3% and 36.6%) than coordination chains (24.5% and 26.1%). Across the three interviews, clause organization showed a relatively even distribution between hypotactic and paratactic structures, with no clear predominance of either pattern.

Among the two participants who demonstrated the lowest levels of emotional awareness, emotionally colored language appeared considerably less frequently than in the higher-LEAS groups. Emotion words were particularly scarce, accounting for only 1.04% and 0.85% of the total word count in the two interviews, respectively. These levels are noticeably lower than those observed in both the high- and intermediate-LEAS groups. At the same time, repetition intensification emerged as the most prominent linguistic resource, reaching 2.70% in one interview and 4.36% in the other (the latter representing the highest repetition rate across the entire dataset). By contrast, adverbial intensifiers occurred relatively infrequently, ranging from 1.40% to 1.92% of the total words. Overall, this group displayed a clear imbalance among the three resources: while emotion-word frequencies remained low, repetition-based intensification appeared considerably more frequently than adverbial intensification.

A similar divergence appeared in discourse organization. The proportion of complex clauses (hypotaxis) ranged from 19.2% to 32.2% of all clauses, whereas coordination chains (parataxis) ranged from 23.1% to 28.8%. In one interview, hypotaxis appeared somewhat more frequently than coordination (32.2% vs. 23.1%). In the other interview, however, the pattern was reversed: coordination chains exceeded subordinate structures (28.8% vs. 19.2%). Compared with the higher-LEAS groups, in which hypotactic organization predominated, the discourse of these participants showed lower proportions of subordination and a relatively greater reliance on coordination chains. Across the two interviews, clause organization exhibited a pattern characterized by reduced hypotactic embedding and increased additive coordination.

Taken together, the discourse of participants with low LEAS scores was characterized by low densities of emotion words, high reliance on repetition intensification, and comparatively limited use of subordinate clause structures, with coordination chains appearing at similar or higher frequencies than those found in hypotactic constructions. The findings from the linguistic analysis are summarized in Appendix B and Appendix C. The summary of the findings on linguistic organization across the levels of emotional awareness is presented in

Table 2. Linguistic Realizations Across Levels of Emotional Awareness.

Linguistic Feature	Students Who Demonstrated High Emotional Awareness (44% of the Participants)	Students Who Demonstrated Moderate Emotional Awareness (33% of the Participants)	Students Who Demonstrated Low Emotional Awareness (22% of the Participants)
Emotion words, adverbial intensifiers, and lexical repetition	Emotion words, adverbial intensifiers, and repetition co-occur regularly Adverbial intensifiers are used most prominently, with repetition and emotion words also consistently present	Repetition is used most prominently Adverbial intensifiers and emotion words are present but less frequent	Use of emotion words is limited Repetition is used most prominently; adverbial intensifiers are infrequent
Hypotaxis (subordination) and parataxis (coordination)	Subordination is used more frequently than coordination. Clauses are often embedded within complex structures, with coordination chains also present	Subordination and coordination occur with similar frequency Both embedded and coordinated clause structures are used	Subordination occurs less frequently Coordination occurs at a similar or higher frequency. Clause structures rely more on additive chaining

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5. Discussion

The most significant methodological contribution of our work lies in combining LEAS analysis with a detailed examination of linguistic realization, thereby offering a uniquely textured view of preservice teachers’ reflective discourse. By mapping levels of emotional awareness onto patterns of emotionally colored language and discourse organization, the analysis reveals developmental profiles that cannot be fully captured through psychological or linguistic measures alone.

Our findings on participants’ reflective discourse in their FL indicate levels of emotional awareness ranging from emerging single-emotion representations to more complex blends-of-blends configurations. The linguistic realization of these levels reflects the individualized professional development trajectories of preservice EFL teachers. These profiles reveal participants’ current levels of emotional awareness as both professional and linguistic competence, shaped by their personal biographies, multicultural classroom experiences, and engagement with simulation-based learning (Avidov-Ungar, 2016; Knowles, 1975; Garrison, 1997). These profiles should be interpreted as developmental configurations rather than longitudinal stages, representing different starting positions along a potential personalized developmental continuum.

5.1. Higher Emotional Awareness in FL Reflective Discourse

The linguistic profile observed among the four participants with the highest LEAS scores suggests a relatively stable pattern in which emotionally colored language, realized through linguistic intensification (adverbial intensifiers and lexical repetition), co-occurs with predominantly hypotactic discourse organization. In the context of oral reflective discourse produced in a foreign language, this combination indicates that participants were able not only to name emotional states but also to modulate their intensity and structurally organize relationships between experiences, evaluations, and perspectives. Given that emotional expression in a foreign language is often reduced or simplified (Dewaele, 2010; Pavlenko, 2005), the presence of both intensification and hierarchical clause organization suggests a greater ability to mobilize available linguistic resources to reflect on emotionally complex experiences.

Moreover, research suggests that learners gradually build an “emotional interlanguage”, adapting their emotional expression to target-language norms as proficiency and cultural exposure increase (Abdurehmanov, 2025, p. 199). More diverse use of emotion words, intensifiers, and syntactic devices in non-native language production may be viewed as evidence of more advanced emotional-pragmatic competence (Pérez-García & Sánchez, 2020). The fact that preservice EFL teachers demonstrated such advanced emotional-pragmatic competence in their reflective discourse aligns with studies that highlight the phenomenon whereby making emotions explicit in discourse supports transformative, not just confirmatory, professional learning (Samnøy et al., 2022; Ehlert et al., 2025).

Our findings also resonate with research on personalized SBL, which suggests that adjusting the emotional and cognitive challenge of learning experiences to the individual participant’s “stretch zone” is essential for fostering transformative professional learning (Bauer et al., 2025; Lane & Smith, 2021; Mishra & Trivedi, 2023). In this sense, the distinctive linguistic profiles observed in the present dataset among participants with higher levels of emotional awareness can be understood as discursive indicators of preservice teachers’ developing capacity to process and articulate emotionally complex professional experiences.

5.2. Intermediate Emotional Awareness in FL Reflective Discourse

Participants demonstrating intermediate levels of emotional awareness exhibited a linguistic profile that differed from that of the high-LEAS group. In these interviews, emotionally colored language was still realized through adverbial intensifiers, lexical repetition, and emotion words; however, lexical repetition emerged as the most prominent resource, while emotion vocabulary remained relatively limited. At the level of discourse organization, clause complexing showed a relatively balanced distribution between hypotaxis and parataxis, in contrast to the clear predominance of hypotaxis observed among participants with higher emotional awareness. This mixed pattern suggests a discourse organization characteristic of an intermediate stage in the linguistic structuring of reflective experience.

Taken together, the combination of repetition-dominant intensification and mixed clause organization creates a transitional linguistic profile linked to intermediate levels of emotional awareness. In terms of the LEAS framework, Levels 3–4 involve the ability to identify discrete emotions and occasionally combine them, but without the integration of multiple emotional perspectives that characterize the highest levels. The linguistic patterns observed align with this representational stage: emotionally colored language is present, yet it is expressed through a limited set of discourse resources, and clause organization shows an incomplete, partially developed, hierarchical structure. From the perspective of preservice teachers’ professional development, such profiles may represent a transition stage along individualized developmental pathways in which the ability to linguistically process and articulate emotionally complex professional experiences is still emerging.

This profile may be understood as reflecting a stage at which emotional experience is clearly present in oral reflective discourse in a foreign language, but is not yet consistently elaborated through a broader range of emotion words or a more strongly hierarchical discourse organization. In this sense, the findings align with those of Lasekan et al. (2025), who demonstrated that emotional vocabulary expands across EFL proficiency levels and supports the development of emotional intelligence. The present findings suggest that when emotional awareness is at an intermediate level, speakers tend to rely less on varied emotion vocabulary and more on repetition as a resource for maintaining emotional salience. At the same time, the relatively balanced use of hypotaxis and parataxis suggests that reflective meaning is being structured, but not yet with the level of integration observed among participants with higher LEAS scores.

This intermediate profile is consistent with research on language teacher education showing that teachers’ professional development emerges through the dynamic interaction of emotion, cognition, agency, and identity (Golombek & Doran, 2014; Nguyen & Ngo, 2023; Uştuk et al., 2025; Amory & Johnson, 2023). Nguyen and Ngo (2023) show that emotional responses to professional tensions are closely tied to preservice teachers’ identity construction and agentive attempts to resolve those tensions. Similarly, Amory and Johnson (2023) and Golombek and Doran (2014) argue that emotion is not secondary to cognition but, rather, forms part of the very process via which novice teachers work through dissonance and develop professionally. From this perspective, the repetition-dominant and only moderately structured discourse may be seen as reflecting a phase in which emotionally significant professional experiences are being processed and verbalized, but not yet fully reorganized into more differentiated and integrated reflective accounts. A similar emphasis on the emotional basis of teacher identity work emerges in Uştuk et al. (2025), whose findings show that preservice teachers’ agency and identity development in intercultural exchange are deeply shaped by emotionally loaded meaning-making. The existing literature thus corroborates our interpretation that the intermediate LEAS profile reflects not a shortcoming but, rather, a developmental point along the individualized professional trajectories of preservice teachers, where emotional experience is salient and meaningful, but not yet fully articulated through linguistic resources.

5.3. Lower Emotional Awareness in FL Reflective Discourse

Participants demonstrating the lowest levels of emotional awareness exhibited a distinctive linguistic profile in which low LEAS scores co-occurred with very limited use of emotion words, reliance on repetition-based linguistic intensification, and relatively weak hypotactic organization. Emotionally colored language appeared considerably less frequently than in the higher-LEAS groups, with emotion words occurring at the lowest densities across the dataset, while lexical repetition functioned as the dominant intensification strategy. In terms of discourse organization, these interviews also showed reduced subordination and greater reliance on coordination chains, suggesting that reflective meaning was structured primarily through linear sequencing rather than through hierarchically embedded relations that typically support causal explanation, evaluation, and perspective differentiation.

Taken together, this configuration indicates that emotionally significant experiences were present in participants’ reflections but remained only partially articulated through available linguistic resources. Rather than being elaborated through differentiated emotion vocabulary and integrated clause structuring, emotional meaning was conveyed primarily through repetition and additive clause chaining. Such a pattern may reflect both developmental and contextual constraints. Research in EFL contexts suggests that emotional vocabulary develops progressively and plays an important role in supporting emotional awareness and regulation (Lasekan et al., 2025). At the same time, studies on bilingual emotional processing indicate that emotional word representations may be less strongly grounded in a second language, which can limit the differentiation of emotional expression (Sheikh & Titone, 2016).

From a developmental perspective, this linguistic configuration may represent an early stage in preservice teachers’ professional development trajectories, in which emotionally salient teaching experiences are recognized but not yet fully processed or structured within reflective discourse. Language teacher education research consistently indicates that emotions play a central role in professional evolvement and identity construction, emerging through tensions that prompt reflection and agency development (Nguyen & Ngo, 2023; Chen et al., 2022). Developing the capacity to articulate these experiences linguistically is therefore an important component of teacher learning where structured reflective activities can foster critical emotional reflexivity and support the integration of emotion, identity, and agency in teacher development (Toker-Bradshaw & Tezgiden-Cakcak, 2024). In this sense, the observed combination of lower emotional awareness and constrained linguistic realization may signal an initial stage in which preservice teachers are beginning to engage with emotionally complex professional experiences but have not yet developed the discursive repertoire required to integrate these experiences into reflective professional meaning-making (Nazari et al., 2023).

6. Conclusions

This study contributes to research on language teacher development by integrating psychological and linguistic approaches to the analysis of preservice teachers’ reflective discourse in a foreign language. Methodologically, the study demonstrates the value of combining LEAS-based emotional awareness assessment with fine-grained linguistic analysis of emotionally colored language and discourse organization, allowing emotional awareness to be examined not only as a psychological construct but also as a discursive phenomenon. From a developmental perspective, the profiles identified in the data may represent different points along preservice teachers’ professional learning trajectories: an initial stage marked by low emotional awareness and limited linguistic resources, a transitional stage where intermediate awareness co-occurs with emerging but uneven linguistic realization, and a more advanced stage in which higher emotional awareness is accompanied by richer, emotionally colored language and more integrated discourse organization. In terms of the practical implications for the field of EFL teacher education, the results highlight how reflective discourse in a foreign language can serve as a window into preservice teachers’ evolving capacity to process emotionally complex professional experiences along individualized professional development trajectories.

A key theoretical contribution of the present study is the integration of LEAS-based emotional awareness coding with SFL-based clause complexing analysis. The findings show that different levels of emotional awareness correspond to distinct linguistic configurations, suggesting that the articulation of emotional experience in reflective discourse develops alongside the linguistic resources available for expressing and structuring emotion. These dimensions are not independent: the ability to articulate blended or divergent emotional states, which is the hallmark of higher LEAS levels, requires holding multiple, potentially conflicting propositions in relation and expressing those relations linguistically.

While the relatively small sample and the absence of systematic comparison between participants from different sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds limit the generalizability of the findings, the present study offers an initial exploration of the relationship between emotional awareness and its linguistic realization in preservice teachers’ reflective discourse in a foreign language. Future research may examine larger and more diverse samples, explore cross-cultural differences in emotional expression in FL reflective discourse, and adopt longitudinal designs to investigate how emotional awareness and its linguistic realization evolve across preservice teachers’ professional development trajectories. The combined LEAS with linguistic framework proposed here offers a methodological bridge linking psychological models of emotional awareness, discourse-oriented research in applied linguistics, and developmental perspectives in language teacher education. A further limitation concerns the use of English as a foreign language, which may not fully capture participants’ underlying emotional awareness; future research could compare emotional awareness and its linguistic realization across first and second language contexts, ideally alongside independent measures of language proficiency. Future research could also consider additional linguistic resources, such as modality, voice, and person system, to further explore how emotional meaning is constructed in discourse.