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

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.