Positive Psychology Perspectives On Foreign Language Learning And Teaching

This book introduces readers to the principles of a fairly new branch of psychology – positive psychology – and demonstrates how they can be applied in the context of second language acquisition in a natural environment and in instructed foreign language (FL) learning. It focuses both on the well-being and success of the learner and the professional and personal well-being of the teacher. Further, the book stresses the importance of the positive emotions and character strengths of those involved in the process of language learning and teaching, as well as the significant role played by enabling institutions such as school and, at the micro-level, individual FL classes.

This book demonstrates how resources taken from positive psychology can benefit both teachers and learners. Positive psychology is the empirical study of how people thrive and flourish. This book explores a range of topics, such as affectivity and positive emotions, engagement, enjoyment, empathy, positive institutions, a positive L2 self-system, as well as newly added Positive Language Education. Some papers in this collection introduce new topics such as the role of positive psychology in international higher education, a framework for understanding language teacher well-being from an ecological perspective, or positive institutional policies in language education contexts.

Positive psychology is the scientific study of how human beings prosper and thrive. This is the first book in SLA dedicated to theories in positive psychology and their implications for language teaching, learning and communication. Chapters examine the characteristics of individuals, contexts and relationships that facilitate learning: positive emotional states such as love, enjoyment and flow, and character traits such as empathy, hardiness and perseverance. The contributors present several innovative teaching ideas to bring out these characteristics among learners. The collection thus blends new teaching techniques with cutting-edge theory and empirical research undertaken using qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches. It will be of interest to SLA researchers, graduate students, trainee and experienced teachers who wish to learn more about language learning psychology, individual differences, learner characteristics and new classroom practices.

Positive psychology studies how individuals thrive and succeed, taking into account the ordinary virtues and strengths of the humans which make life good. It addresses three areas, which include positive experiences of individuals, positive characteristics of individuals, and institutions which allow people to succeed. As an emerging subdivision in psychology, it has significant implications in the acquisition of a foreign language. Developing a positive psychology helps the foreign language learners become more resilient when presented with challenges in the instructional context. Positive psychology seeks to enhance the linguistic progress of a learner by focusing on factors such as hope, courage, well-being, optimism, creativity, happiness, grit, resilience, strengths and laughter. This book explores all the important aspects of positive psychology in learning a foreign language. It will serve as a valuable source of reference for graduate and post graduate students.

This book seeks to support and maintain teacher wellbeing, particularly for language teachers, through a variety of approaches. While acknowledging the importance of contextual factors, the book serves as a practical guide for individual teachers, helping them discover strategies for nurturing and promoting their wellbeing.

Language Education and Emotions presents innovative, empirical research into the influence of emotions and affective factors in language education, both in L1 and in foreign language education. It offers a comprehensive overview of studies authored and co-authored by researchers from all over the world. The volume opens and ends with "backbone" contributions by two of the discipline’s most reputed scholars: Jane Arnold (Spain) and Jean-Marc Dewaele (United Kingdom). This book broadens our understanding of emotions, including well-known concepts such as foreign language anxiety as well as addressing the emotions that have only recently received scientific attention, driven by the positive psychology movement. Chapters explore emotions from the perspective of the language learner and the language teacher, and in relation to educational processes. A number of contributions deal with traditional, school-based contexts, whereas others study new settings of foreign language education such as migration. The book paints a picture of the broad scale of approaches used to study this topic and offers new and relevant insights for the field of language education and emotions. This book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the field of language education, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics.

This book brings together a diverse range of empirical chapters spanning various contexts and educational levels which explore the psychology of teaching and learning a subject through a second or other language. The chapters discuss both the psychological stressors and strains for learners and teachers, as well as the benefits and joys of being involved in such programmes. The studies encompass a range of areas, such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), Foreign Language Medium of Instruction (FMI), bilingual education and other related approaches to integrating content and language. They feature a variety of psychological constructs, including identity, self-confidence, motivation, self-concept, teacher and learner beliefs, affect, anxiety, stress, mindsets, attributions and well-being, from the perspectives of both teachers and learners. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in ensuring that teachers and students are properly supported and that their experiences of integrated content and language settings enable them to flourish.

To date, the majority of work in language learning psychology has focused on the learner. In contrast, relatively little attention has been paid to teacher psychology. This volume seeks to redress the imbalance by bringing together various strands of research into the psychology of language teachers. It consists of 19 contributions on well-established areas of teacher psychology, as well as areas that have only recently begun to be explored. This original collection, which covers a multitude of theoretical and methodological perspectives, makes a significant contribution to the emerging field of language teacher psychology as a domain of inquiry within language education.