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I would like to thank Lourdes Ortega, Alison Mackey, John Norris, the anonymous reviewers as well as SSLA editors for their constructive and thorough feedback on the earlier versions of the manuscript. I am also grateful to Somayeh Tahmouresi for her assistance in different stages of the study.
INTRODUCTION
Emotions play important roles in the process of language learning and teaching. The study of learners' emotional reactions, for instance, can account for differences between engaged and unengaged learners, explaining why some learners with motivational goals are not stimulated enough to take action (MacIntyre, 2002; also see Prior & Kasper, 2016). Moreover, teachers can benefit from the findings of such studies to devise strategies not only to address negative emotions that L2 learners may experience in the process of language learning but also to keep learners motivated by creating more positive and facilitative emotions (Arnold, 1999). Although previous studies have mostly focused on negative emotions and, in particular, language anxiety, this trend has shifted recently with some second language acquisition (SLA) scholars paying more attention to positive emotions (e.g., Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014; MacIntyre & Gregersen, 2012). The inclusion of emotions in L2 motivation research, more specifically, in the L2 motivational self system, has also been recognized and highlighted by L2 motivation researchers (e.g., Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009; MacIntyre, Mackinnon, & Clément, 2009). MacIntyre et al. (2009), for instance, argues that exclusion of emotions in motivational research would leave possible L2 selves as simply cold cognitive representations of learners' goals. MacIntyre and Gregersen (2012) also attribute the major motivational forces of learners' L2 selves to different types of emotions, arguing that the motivational drive of L2 possible selves cannot be fully captured without considering the emotional states arising from different types of self-discrepancies or congruencies.
In an attempt to extend the realm of emotion research in SLA, and as a response to calls for the inclusion of emotions in motivation research (e.g., Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009; MacIntyre & Gregersen, 2012), the present study aims to investigate three important emotional states--anxiety, joy, and shame--within the L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009). The study seeks to relate L2 learners' affect to their L2 future self-guides. As...