An Emotion-evoking Text in Cross-Сultural Aspect: Attitude and Evalution

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Introduction

Reading is considered to be one of the most important types of human activities. It is viewed from a wide range of perspectives: as a source of new knowledge and “a way of familiarizing oneself with socio-cultural information manifested in certain texts of a culture” [1. P. 3], and as a cognitive process, which “determines the intellectual and spiritual level of a society” [2. P. 164]. Reading and a reader are discussed by sociologists, psychologists, philosophers [3–5, et al.], and, of course, by educators and linguists, who point out that the ability to perceive a text, the ability to understand, interpret and evaluate its content, which to a great extent depends on a reader’s worldview and experience, both as a member of a particular society and culture and as a reader and communicator [6. P. 378–379]. Reading remains the main skill for mastering a foreign language even though in the era of information overload, the vast majority of information we receive is in the audio format.

Texts, including their genre, pragmatic and stylistic modifications are a source of information about human beings and what is happening in their world. Thus, it provides an opportunity for a critical assessment of events and serves as the basis for polythematic communication.

For someone reading in a foreign language, a text acts as an element of some country’s culture; it incorporates not only an author’s personality but also the history of his nation. Educational texts are used to introduce students to various aspects of life in the country of the target language as well as to contribute to the emergence of a broad linguistic and cultural competence. However, it needs to be noted that the criteria for selecting educational texts are by no means determined solely by their importance in the context of introducing a foreign culture. Using educational texts in teaching a foreign language is an indispensable means that exemplifies and facilitates the mastery of the grammatical structure and vocabulary of a target language. It is also of no coincidence that written and spoken texts are used to test the level of proficiency in productive and receptive skills in a foreign language. When selecting educational texts, which is crucial for teaching a foreign language, the level of language proficiency, specific goals, and learning objectives should be taken into consideration. The higher the level of language proficiency is, the higher are the requirements of textual content, language, style, and genre.

Like any cognitive act, the comprehension of a text is emotionally marked: throughout the process of semantic interpretation of a text, the reader creates a subjective projection of its content, which reflects the reader’s attitude towards and emotional assessment of this information [7]. The ability to perceive emotional information varies from person to person. Regarding the perception of imagery, V.A. Maslova points out that the subjective interpretation of images by readers and their individual modification are defined both by “the form and semantics of the language signs they are created by” and by “the personality of the reader and the extent to which the content of the imagery in question is important to him or her” [8. P. 26]. It means that the final result of perception depends not only on the characteristics of a text but also on the reader’s personality, experience, values, etc. As to a personality, in this case one might refer to the so-called collective personality — the community of native speakers of a language and members of a certain culture, who share a particular mentality and view of the world. N.A. Krasavsky highlights the impact of extralinguistic factors on human emotions, listing among them the mentality of the ethnic group. These factors have to be taken into consideration when identifying and interpreting one’s psycho-emotional state [9. P. 6], including the states brought about by reading and commenting a text. Shaped by the cultural stereotypes of a particular society, the collective mentality affects, among other things, foreign language acquisition [10. P. 411]. According to I.V. Arnold, the intellectual and emotional impact of a text on a reader depends on “the reader’s competence and open-mindedness — the qualities that can and should be developed” [11. P. 203]. Which is why in cross-cultural communication it becomes vital to be familiar with the linguocultural codes of emotional exchange common to the speakers of both languages as well as with the dominant attributes of their respective national cultures and the ways of expressing them [12. P. 283].

Within the Russian methodology of foreign language instruction, the concept of emotive competence is defined as a set of certain emotional skills that “ensure the understanding of the student’s own emotions and the emotions of native speakers, as well as the expression by various linguistic and extralinguistic means and the management of these emotions during intercultural interactions” [13. P. 140]. When selecting educational materials which target the development of students’ emotive competence, one should consider factors such as specificity of the native culture’s emotional sphere and the availability of traditional expressions for naming various emotions; one should also take into account the relationship between cognitive and emotional aspects in the perception and assessment of human behavior in those cultures. Emotions are largely universal, however, “the distribution of universal emotions, their intensity, and accentuation in speech acts differ both at the individual level and at the national level” [14. P. 48–49). Certain mental, psychological, emotional and other dominant features determined by the national cultural tradition as well as by the prevalent ideology are bound to influence the perception of foreign language text content [10. P. 411; 15].

Of all the fiction genres, it is comedy texts that attract special attention as they usually feature an emotionally charged situation which has personal relevance. V.N. Telia points out that such situations stimulate an emotional response in a reader [16]. The evaluation of the situation can be either explicit or implicit as the means of expressing the emotive theme depend on the author. In cases where the evaluation is not articulated explicitly, it is the reader identifies the emotive nature of the text by virtue of personal experience [17].

As a specific phenomenon of national culture, humor occupies an important niche in people’s lives; it reflects the traits of the national character, values, and preferences [18]. The purpose of a humorous narrative is not to deliver new information but rather — by clashing opposing cultural scenarios — to make a reader laugh and reflect. The specific character of national humor is manifested primarily in the topics, scenarios, and types of humorous narratives, as well as in how the punchline is created. A humorous narrative may be considered successful in its perception when both interlocutors have similar social and psychological experiences, belong to the same culture, and when the discussed topic is a part of the national humor paradigm [19].

Humorous texts are frequently used as teaching materials, e.g., to relieve tension and create an informal atmosphere in the classroom, to increase students’ motivation, and to encourage their intellectual curiosity. M. Montgomery provides examples of humorous text which include elements of parody, humor, and irony; such elements express the content of the text both explicitly and implicitly [20]. However, if the author’s and the reader’s humorous worldviews do not align, the intended effect of the “punchline” may be flattened or diminished, which in turn leads to a communicative failure. As noted in today’s research, emotionalization gives significant results in teaching a foreign (second) language [21–23]. Many psychologists focus their attention on a multifaceted construct such as interest that significantly affects learning motivation [24. P. 105]. Additionally, it should become a guide for future actions of instructors.

The aim of the current study is to explore the emotional reactions to a humorous Russian-language text by representatives of the Chinese and the Russian cultures in order to identify the similarities and differences in their emotional responses to a story and its characters. The study is comprised of an analysis of survey results, where Chinese and Russian university students were polled upon reading a humorous text. Researchers generally tend to take more interest in the objective characteristics of texts which may evoke particular feelings or evaluations [25–27, etc.]. Our purpose, by contrast, was to focus on the readers and their affective and intellectual responses to what they have read.

In the present study, a humorous text was used to help identify the Chinese students’ attitude towards the use of emotive materials in Russian language instruction, their perception of humorous narratives, and their emotional response to the events and characters described in the story. The data yielded by the above study was compared to the results of a survey taken by the Russian students, who read the same text and, unlike the Chinese students, perceived it not as an educational resource but as a typically Russian humorous narrative. As a result, we obtained data which allowed us to identify the participants’ attitude towards the use of emotive texts in teaching language and to determine how similar or different their emotional responses to the story and its characters were.

The study was a survey taken by university students from China and Russia, with 39 people from each of the two countries. The Chinese respondents were postgraduate students taking a course in Russian, whose level was B1 or higher. Male respondents made up 5.13 % of the Russian sample and 23.08 % of the Chinese sample. The Russian respondents were university students from Moscow and St. Petersburg. The survey was conducted in three parts. In part one, the respondents answered questions about themselves: whether they consider themselves emotional and whether they would describe themselves as reserved or reactive. Part two asked questions about using humorous texts in the language classroom. The third and main part of the survey included a humorous text and six relevant questions to answer after reading. The questions were aimed at obtaining information about the reader’s emotional response to the story and its characters’ behavior

The humorous text used in this study described an idyllic relationship of a romantic couple which was suddenly ruined by mistrust and lack of understanding. The text was considered appropriate because the topic of love is universal, known to stir emotions regardless of the context [28] and relevant to young people. The humorous effect arises due to a swift transition from the characters being about to get married to one of them feeling utter disappointment and abandoning the idea altogether. The ironic tone of the story is supported by its composition. It begins with a comically lyric description of the background: The sun was shining brightly. The birds were singing. The air was filled with sweet scents. This is followed by a series of doubts on the part of the girl and several tests she puts her boyfriend through in order to make sure that he is not stingy. In the end, he concludes that he should not marry such a capricious and demanding girl. The composition is matched by the syntax and vocabulary. For example, as the young man becomes less and less eager to please his girlfriend, this change in him is mirrored by the verbs of motion showing “negative acceleration:” at the beginning he dashed to a kiosk, then ran to the florist, but towards the end, having run out of enthusiasm, he trudged to the shop. The ironic character of the text is undeniable.

Results

The results of the first part of the survey showed differences in psychological self-assessment by the two samples of respondents. The majority of the Russians consider themselves emotional (87.18 %) but reserved (51.28 %). 48.72 % of the Russians think of themselves as impulsive. Compared to the Russians, considerably fewer Chinese students described themselves as emotional (64.1 %), but more see themselves as reserved (64.1 %).

The second part of the survey dealt with the students’ attitudes to the use of humorous texts in a foreign language class (including Russian as a foreign language). The results demonstrated that regardless of their psychological selfassessment, the overwhelming majority of students enjoy reading humorous stories because they do not cause frustration but stimulate interest (92.31 % amongst Russian respondents and 97.44 % amongst Chinese). Very few students displayed a negative attitude: 1) “I do not like it” — one Chinese and three Russian students; 2) “I find it frustrating” — one Russian and two Chinese students; 3) “It does not make the reading more interesting” — one Chinese and three Russian students. Such small numbers of negative responses can be treated as statistically insignificant.

In the third part of the survey, the overall emotional evaluation of the text was the same in both samples: it was found to evoke emotions as well as be interesting and entertaining. Statistically, however, there were some differences: the Chinese students reported no emotional response or found the reading uninteresting more frequently than the Russians, with 30.77 % vs 12.82 % and 23.08 % vs 15.38 %, respectively. It also stands out that a larger proportion of the Russian than of the Chinese respondents considered the text to be serious (35.89 % vs 25.64 %).

Besides the general evaluation of the text, the respondents were offered a list of emotional responses from which they could choose how the text made them feel: laughing, wonder, disappointment, vexation, indifference, interest, sadness, being upset (see: Table 1). They could also add to this list to specify their feelings.

All the options from the list were used, but the proportions varied. The most frequent choices of the Chinese students were laughing and interest (61.54 % each), followed by vexation (28.21 %) and wonder (23.08 %). The Russians most commonly responded with interest (46.15 %) and disappointment (35.90 %) although the figures for the prevalent emotions are not as high as with the Chinese (61.54 % vs 46.15 %). The next two options commonly chosen by the Russian respondents were upset and laughing (each 28.21 %) although, once again, the proportions were lower than in the Chinese population sample.

Table 1. Emotional responses to the text reported by the Chinese and Russian students

Emotions and Attitudes (according the survey)	The Number/ Percentage of Russian Respondents, %		The Number/ Percentage of Chinese Respondents, %
laughing	11	28.21	24	61.54
wonder	6	15.38	9	23.08
feel sad	8	20.51	5	12.82
feel disappointed	14	35.90	5	12.82
feel vexed	9	23.08	11	28.21
leaves you indifferent	3	7.69	6	15.38
feel interested	18	46.15	24	61.54
feel upset	11	28.21	6	15.38
other feelings	5	12.82	1	2.56

The Russian students were more likely to specify their feelings and indicated emotions and attitudes which were not included in the list (for example, shame, indignation, hope for a happy ending, embarrassment, regret, a sad smile, pensiveness, a half-smile, failure to understand the female character’s behavior). There was only one addition made in the Chinese sample, namely, that the story was rather ordinary (“the story is nothing special”). The proportion of each emotion reported by the respondents clearly demonstrates that interest and disappointment prevail among the Russians, whereas interest and amusement (laughing) are dominant among the Chinese respondents.

There are differences in the emotional responses to the behavior of the female character in the story, Allochka. The clearly prevalent response in the Russian sample was disapproval (48.72 %), whereas no particular emotion prevailed in the Chinese sample; however, disapproval was marked by a third of the Chinese respondents (33.33 %) (Table 2). The most frequent responses in the Chinese sample were pity

(35.9 %), closely followed by empathy (33.33 %), the aforementioned disapproval (33.33 %), and wonder (30.77 %). In the case of the Russians, the second and third most frequently reported responses were resentment (38.46 %) and disappointment (33.33 %) (viz. Table 2).

The Russian respondents were more likely to elaborate on their emotions and attitudes, both positive and negative: 1) confusion, embarrassment, despair; 2) tenderness (like tenderness towards young children) and a smile; 3) irritation; 4) amusing to follow the female character’s train of thought; 5) laughing; 6) disdain; 7) repulsion. Table 1 clearly indicates the prevalence of a negative attitude among the Russian respondents, i.e., disapproval and resentment, whereas the attitude of the Chinese respondents was predominantly more positive, with the feelings of pity, empathy, wonder, and only one negative emotion (disapproval).

Table 2. Emotional responses towards Allochka’s behavior

Emotions and Attitudes	Number/ Percentage of Russian Respondents, %		Number/ Percentage of Chinese Respondents, %
approval	1	2,56	5	12,82
disapproval	19	48,72	13	33,33
indifference	3	7,69	4	10,26
empathy	6	15,38	13	33,33
pity	9	23,08	14	35,9
wonder	11	28,21	12	30,77
disappointment	13	33,33	7	17,95
resentment	15	38,46	5	12,82
other	7	17,95	1	2,56

As for attitudes towards Tolya, the male character in the story, there is noticeable resemblance between the two samples in terms of prevalent emotions and their respective proportions. The main emotion here is empathy although it was reported by many more Russian than Chinese respondents (69.23 % and 41.03 %, respectively). Empathy is then followed by approval (38.46 % and 33.33 %) and pity (33.33 % and 30.77 %).

Considerable differences are observed in the less frequently reported emotions such as wonder (reported by 23.08 % of the Chinese and 5.13 % of the Russians) and indifference (20.51 % and 10.26 % of the Chinese and Russians, respectively) (Table 3).

Table 3. Emotional responses towards Tolya and his behavior

Emotions and Attitudes	Number/ Percentage of Russian Respondents, %		Number/ Percentage of Chinese Respondents, %
approval	15	38,46	13	33,33
disapproval	3	7,69	5	12,82
indifference	4	10,26	8	20,51
empathy	27	69,23	16	41,03
pity	13	33,33	12	30,77
wonder	2	5,13	9	23,08
disappointment	4	10,26	6	15,38
resentment	3	7,69	2	5,13
other	4	10,26	2	5,13

Proportionately, the attitudes towards Tolya were similar in both samples, with the majority being empathy and approval, followed by pity.

Quite different emotions were evoked in respondents by the ending of the story, i.e., Tolya’s decision (Table 4) to break up with Allochka: whereas Russian respondents reported experiencing joy (38.46 %), the Chinese ones were on the contrary disappointed (35.9 %) or surprised (30.77 %). At the same time, students from both samples offered their own responses to his decision, with the proportion of responses from the Russian cohort being almost half at 48.72 % while that of the Chinese cohort was only 23.08 %.

Table 4. Emotional responses towards Tolya’s decision

Emotions and Attitudes	Number/ Percentage of Russian Respondents, %		Number/ Percentage of Chinese Respondents, %
wonder	6	15,38	12	30,77
disappointment	4	10,26	14	35,9
resentment	–	–	3	7,69
joy	15	38,46	8	20,51
other	19	48,72	9	23,08

The attitudes and emotions listed by the Russians included: support and approval; respect; pride; admiration, interest, hope; satisfaction; relief; pride; regret. In some cases, the emotion was not named, but a comment was given which made the respondent’s attitude obvious. Specifically, Tolya’s decision is seen as logical and justified (“I understand him” — four responses; “I agree with Tolya” — one response); it is also seen as unsurprising and deserving of support (“I stand with him, had a laugh at the end” — one response). There were also attempts by the Russian respondents to explain the causes of the events and the reasoning behind their own attitude: “It was to be expected; they are bad at communication and doubt their feelings for each other.” One respondent felt sad about the situation because “such humorous stories are rooted in reality; people have to learn to communicate and to understand and express their needs”. Two of the respondents remained indifferent; Tolya’s decision did not make them feel anything. Of the note is the large proportion of disappointment in the Chinese sample as opposed to joy in the Russian cohort. This is quite striking considering the mentality of the Chinese, who tend to avoid negative emotions.

Discussion

The aim of the survey preceding reading the text was to determine whether such personal traits as being emotional/unemotional or impulsive/ reserved could influence, firstly, the perception of the reading’s emotional content, and secondly, the preferences in selecting reading material and the evaluation of one’s own emotional response to the reading. The overwhelming majority of the respondents (36 out of 39 Russians and 38 out of 39 Chinese) felt positively about the use of humorous texts in the language classroom. The survey shows that this attitude is not affected by self-reported lack of emotionality: i.e., four out of five “unemotional” Russian respondents gave a positive answer to this question.

Quantitative differences between the Chinese and the Russian respondents in the assessment of their emotionality are quite significant. The Chinese students reported themselves to be emotional and impulsive much less frequently than the Russian ones did (64 % of the Chinese sample marked “reserved” in the survey). It might be assumed that their answers were affected by ethnic stereotypes about the Chinese such as their control of emotional display and “saving face.” In Chinese culture, the display of emotions is supposed to be moderate; one should maintain a humble and dignified attitude. The Russians, on the other hand, think of themselves predominantly as emotional (87.18 %), yet at the same time about half of them (51.28 %) describe themselves as reserved and say that they do not tend to express their emotions. Thus, the rather common opinion of Russians as people who are open in showing their feelings does not find support in the survey.

The results were quite unexpected, however, for the humorous text describing the serious topic of choosing a partner in life. The Chinese respondents felt positively about the humor of the story, and they by far outnumbered the Russians who thought so as well, with percentages of 87.18 % vs 69.23 %, respectively. The Russian respondents thus proved to be more serious in a way as they probably saw the upcoming conflict as realistic.

Paradoxically, more often than not, the Chinese respondents said that the story was not the kind to evoke emotions. At the same time, however, when it came to describing their dominant emotions and reactions to the reading, they said that the text made them laugh, which ranked first in their responses at 61.54 % together with interest, whereas the Russians said that the text made them laugh in only 28.21 % of the cases. Ranking second and third in the Chinese sample were the feelings of vexation at 28.21 % and wonder at 23.08 %. The top-down ranking emotions in the Russian sample made the respondents feel interest (46.15 %), disappointment (35.09 %), upset and made them laugh (28.21 % each).

The most significant differences were found in the emotional responses to the behavior of Allochka and the ending of the story. The underlying cause might be the fact that people in East Asia tend to express primarily positive emotions and control the display of the negative ones [29]; the proportion of negative emotions towards Allochka is much lower in the Chinese cohort in comparison with the Russian one (33.79 and 55.96 % respectively). In the Chinese sample, Allochka evoked pity (35.9 %), followed by empathy and disapproval (each 33.33 %), and then wonder (30.77 %). Nearly half of the Russian respondents felt negative towards her: almost half of them (48.72 %) said that the text made them laugh, which was followed by the feelings of resentment (38.46 %) and disappointment (33.33 %). Positive feelings were reported by considerably fewer respondents, where empathy was marked by only 15.38 %, not to mention approval with only 2.56 %.

The greatest similarity was observed in the attitudes towards Tolya: he was equally liked in both samples, and both of them sympathized with him. Although proportionately, more Russian than Chinese respondents reported empathy, whereas more Chinese than Russians were simply surprised or remained indifferent.

Conclusion

Emotions increase the learner’s engagement and largely contribute to learning retention, yet the outcome of the task is determined not only by the emotional disposition of the group, the teacher, and the individual learner’s emotional state but also by the materials; i.e., the texts used in the classroom, of which preference should undoubtedly be given to those which evoke emotions and whose topic and genre do not cause boredom/disinterest but instead create space for discussion. The humorous text in the survey met our expectations: it aroused interest, enabled the emotions experienced by Russian and Chinese students to be compared and contrasted, and used that juxtaposition to highlight the similarities and differences in their self-identification and perception of the reading and to outline some avenues for further study of reading as part of foreign language instruction and learning.

When such materials are offered for the reading comprehension or for the assessment of the characters’ behavior, which often comes to the foreground is the culture-related value system of the readers, which is bound to affect the overall emotional response to the reading. It is no coincidence that the largest differences were in the attitudes to the character that comes across as “negative” and to the ending of the story while the feelings towards the “positive” character were nearly unanimously positive in both samples.

Shared attitudes common to a particular culture can also cause homogeneity in evaluations and a lack of individual emotional expression. If the plot of a story presents a culturally stereotypical situation, the expression of the emotional response may be reduced.

On the other hand, educators point out that the Asian teaching tradition does not typically rely on tasks which require students to interpret the material or to share their perspective on an issue [30. P. 68].

From a cross-cultural perspective, it appears promising to conduct a comparative study to contrast the emotions of Chinese respondents towards the members of their own culture and towards the representatives of other cultures. The experiment could feature two versions of the same text: in the original (i.e., in Russian) and in translation (i.e., a good translation into Chinese). Would it be easier to remain indifferent to a faux pas made by a non-Chinese person? Should one condemn inappropriate behavior of a Chinese person when they excuse the same faults in a character from a different culture?

Answers to these questions may be helpful in developing criteria for selecting foreign language instructional materials which would take into account ethnic cultures as well as improving the approaches to teaching the reading comprehension and administering surveys.

About the authors

Elena I. Seliverstova

Saint Petersburg State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: e.seliverstova@spbu.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2020-0061

Doctor in Philology, Professor, Professor and Acting Head of the Russian Language Department for Humanitarian and Natural Faculties

7/9, University Embank., St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, 199034

Larisa B. Volkova

Saint Petersburg State University

Email: lb-volkowa@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4737-0925

PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Russian Language for Humanities and Natural Sciences

7/9, University Embank., St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, 199034

Xiangfei Ma

Hangzhou Dianzi University

Email: 435827444@qq.com

PhD in Philology, Lecturer at the School of Foreign Language

1158, 2nd Street, Qiantang New Area, Hangzhou, China, 310018

References