Setting an Agenda for Positive Psychology in SLA: Theory, Practice, and Research

By P. Macintyre, T. Gregersen, Sarah Mercer. The Modern Language Journal, 2019

497 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this article we introduce Positive Psychology (PP), a relatively new subfield of psychology, and outline its development since the year 2000. We describe ways in which PP represents an exciting addition to the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) literature and the ways it is already influencing trends in education generally, thus creating promising expectations of its impact on language teaching and learning. After reviewing the progress made thus far under the rubric of PP in SLA, we offer suggestions for an agenda to move forward with theory, research, and practice.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Language and Linguistics, Philosophy

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3a61e585865f673654602f412ff825932f2136de

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Citations in the corpus

Are foreign language learners’ enjoyment and anxiety specific to the teacher? An investigation into the dynamics of learners’ classroom emotions (2020, unknown): “MacIntyre et al. (2019) point out that the emergence of positive psychology in applied linguistics fits in with “the zeitgeist of general education which now sees the promotion of well-being as both desirable and necessary” (p. 9).”
Informal digital learning of English and L2 willingness to communicate: roles of emotions, gender, and educational stage (2021, background): “However, a recent ‘ emotional turn ’ (White 2018) or ‘ a ﬀ ective turn ’ (Prior 2019) has prompted researchers to recognise the signi ﬁ cant role of emotions in L2 learning and acquisition (MacIntyre, Gregersen, and Mercer 2019).”
Researching and Practicing Positive Psychology in Second/Foreign Language Learning and Teaching: The Past, Current Status and Future Directions (2021, background): “From a methodological perspective, many studies on FLE were mixedmethods approaches where participants’ voices were heard in descriptions of episodes they enjoyed in their FL classroom or in subsequent interviews (e.g., Dewaele and MacIntyre, 2014, 2019; Li et al., 2018; Li, 2020).”
Teacher enthusiasm and students’ social-behavioral learning engagement: The mediating role of student enjoyment and boredom in Chinese EFL classes (2021, background): “Interest moved beyond foreign language (classroom) anxiety to include a wider spectrum of emotions including enjoyment, love, pride, hope, shame, guilt, and boredom (e.g. MacIntyre et al., 2019; Pavelescu & Petrić, 2018; Teimouri, 2018).”
Online Foreign Language Learning in Higher Education and Its Correlates during the COVID-19 Pandemic (2021, background): “Past studies show that positive emotions can contribute to the decrease in the effects of negative emotional arousal and facilitate adaptation, as the online learning environment offers more opportunities for emotions regulation [82,83].”