Fatemeh Nemati

Over the past two decades, there has been a vigorous debate regarding the impact of emotional factors on language learning and processing. This research aimed to investigate the influence of arousal on vocabulary learning and processing among Persian learners of English as a foreign language. Following twelve treatment sessions, the participants were asked to perform two free recall tasks in addition to a word naming task. The initial posttest recall, conducted one week after the treatment, revealed that arousal had no significant effect on the participants' performance. However, the analysis demonstrated a significant impact of arousal on the participants' second recall test after one month. Furthermore, the results of the word naming task indicated that arousal played a role in both the accuracy of the participants' word retrieval and their reaction time. Additionally, this study produced a small dataset of arousal norms for English words based on evaluations from proficient Persian speakers. Moreover, the study aimed to compare the arousal ratings of English words between Persian and English speakers, revealing distinct differences in the judgment norms. These findings can be valuable for educators and textbook designers in making informed decisions when selecting materials. Furthermore, the emotional norm dataset generated through this study can serve as a resource for researchers working in the field of emotional dimensions and language learning and processing.