English Majors’ Flow Experiences in L2 Writing: An Interview Study

The qualitative research reported in this article investigated whether English major students at a Hungarian university experience flow in any kind of writing that they engage in and what dimensions of flow they encounter when they feel highly absorbed in their writing tasks. Moreover, it highlighted what might prevent participants from experiencing flow in writing and what factors affect their engagement in writing. The participants in this study (N = 7) were interviewed using a semi-structured interview protocol, then their interview transcripts were analyzed thematically. The collected data revealed that English majors participating in this study experienced flow in writing. Based on their own accounts, participants’ flow experiences were mostly characterized by having an altered sense of time, concentrating on the task at hand, having positive feelings that made this experience intrinsically motivating for them, feeling in control of the task, losing their self-consciousness, and having clear goals. Furthermore, it has been found that factors like certain task features, external distractions, and time limits might hinder participants from experiencing flow in writing. The findings of the current study have clear implications for language teachers and instructors. They should consider a range of factors when designing and administering language writing tasks such as their level of difficulty, the time assigned to complete these tasks, their degree of relevance and familiarity to the language learners, and their clarity. Teachers should also pay attention to their learners in terms of what task types and genres they prefer to write and how motivated they are to perform a particular writing task.