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Directed motivational currents (DMCs) seek to account for highly intense motivational surges having the potential to fuel sustained behaviors such as the study of a second/foreign language (L2). While the positive emotional nature of this phenomenon is well-documented, relatively less is understood about its negative aspects. Following calls for a greater focus on this area, this qualitative study used an exploratory design to investigate the sources and outcomes of distressing emotions in DMCs based on the retrospective L2 (i.e., English) learning accounts of a total of 6 Turkish English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) trainee teachers gathered by means of in-depth semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis of the dataset led to the development of three main themes (the lack of progress towards goal-achievement, negative progress feedback, the difficulties arising from multitasking) that reflect the sources of distressing emotions. The outcomes of such emotions included self-efficacy doubts and the loss of motivational momentum. Overall, these findings enrich our knowledge of the affective properties of DMCs and provide insights into the role of emotional challenges in undermining efforts to sustain motivated behaviors in the study of an L2.
