Introducing Positive Psychology to SLA.

By P. Macintyre, Sarah Mercer. 2014

535 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Positive psychology is a rapidly expanding subfield in psychology that has important implications for the field of second language acquisition (SLA). This paper introduces positive psychology to the study of language by describing its key tenets. The potential contributions of positive psychology are contextualized with reference to prior work, including the humanistic movement in language teaching, models of motivation, the concept of an affective filter, studies of the good language learner, and the concepts related to the self. There are reasons for both encouragement and caution as studies inspired by positive psychology are undertaken. Papers in this special issue of SSLLT cover a range of quantitative and qualitative methods with implications for theory, research, and teaching practice. The special issue serves as a springboard for future research in SLA under the umbrella of positive psychology.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Language and Linguistics, Philosophy

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/72359200c84bd69ff627c49c80608ea3f9660674

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Citations in the corpus

A longitudinal study of foreign language anxiety and enjoyment (2021, background): “Researchers of PP are interested to find out how language learners can ‘develop and maintain their motivation, perseverance, and resiliency, as well as positive emotions necessary for the long-term undertaking of learning a foreign language’ (MacIntyre & Mercer, 2014, p. 156).”
Understanding Chinese high school students’ Foreign Language Enjoyment: Validation of the Chinese version of the Foreign Language Enjoyment scale (2018, unknown): “Dewaele and MacIntyre (2014), MacIntyre and Gregersen (2014) and Imai (2010) have argued in favor of a more holistic view of emotions in which positive emotions are not merely viewed as mirror images of negative emotions.”
Foreign language enjoyment and anxiety: The effect of teacher and learner variables (2018, background): “…and mental illness and the development of ways to reduce pain and learn to cope with negative experiences, in favour of the development of tools to build positive emotions, foster greater engagement, and boost the appreciation of meaning in life and its activities (MacIntyre & Mercer, 2014).”
Does the effect of enjoyment outweigh that of anxiety in foreign language performance (2018, background): “MacIntyre and Mercer (2014) express this view convincingly: Many language educators are aware of the importance of improving individual learners’ experiences of language learning by helping them to develop and maintain their motivation, perseverance, and resiliency, as well as positive emotions…”
ROLE OF THE EMOTIONS AND CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT IN WILLINGNESS TO COMMUNICATE (2017, background): “MacIntyre and Mercer (2014) state that “models of the learning and communication process are incomplete without explicit consideration of positive emotions, individual strengths, and the various institutions and contexts of learning” (p. 165).”
Exploring the Fluctuations of Foreign Language Enjoyment in Conversation: An Idiodynamic Perspective (2018, background): “Positive psychology aims to develop tools in order to build positive emotions (MacIntyre & Mercer, 2014) and move away from the impacts of negative emotions by putting more focus on positive ones such as FLE (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014; Dewaele et al., 2016).”
Are foreign language learners’ enjoyment and anxiety specific to the teacher? An investigation into the dynamics of learners’ classroom emotions (2020, unknown): “…and learn to cope with negative experiences, in favor of the development of tools to build positive emotions, foster greater engagement, and boost the appreciation of meaning in life and its activities (MacIntyre & Gregersen, 2012; MacIntyre, Gregersen, & Mercer, 2016; MacIntyre & Mercer, 2014).”
So Far So Good: An Overview of Positive Psychology and Its Contributions to SLA (2016, unknown): “The third key contribution of PosPsy is Seligman’s (2011) PERMA model.”
Advanced learners’ foreign language-related emotions across the four skills (2018, background): “This new approach has also found its way into our field (MacIntyre & Mercer, 2014), which is well reflected by the fact that two books were published on the topic quite recently (i.e., Gabryś-Barker & Gałajda, 2016; MacIntyre, Gregersen, & Mercer, 2016).”
Love and enjoyment in context: four case studies of adolescent EFL learners (2018, unknown): “…research, inspired by positive psychology, has shifted its focus to positive emotions, shown to facilitate and enhance the language learning process (e.g., Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014; MacIntyre & Gregersen, 2012a; Gregersen & MacIntyre, 2014; MacIntyre & Mercer, 2014; Oxford, 2014; Murphey, 2014).”
The role of grit and classroom enjoyment in EFL learners’ willingness to communicate (2020, unknown): “In line with the movement toward the use of positive psychology in SLA (Dewaele and MacIntyre 2014; MacIntyre and Gregersen 2012; MacIntyre, Gregersen, and Mercer 2016), increasingly, more studies have shown that positive classroom environment is signi ﬁ cantly linked to L2 WTC in EFL classrooms amo”