Positive Psychology Perspectives on Foreign Language Learning and Teaching [Hardcover]

This book introduces readers to the principles of a fairlynew branch of psychology  positive psychology  and demonstrates how they canbe applied in the context of second language acquisition in a naturalenvironment and in instructed foreign language (FL) learning. It focuses bothon the well-being and success of the learner and the professional and personalwell-being of the teacher. Further, the book stresses the importance of thepositive emotions and character strengths of those involved in the process oflanguage learning and teaching, as well as the significant role played byenabling institutions such as school and, at the micro-level, individual FLclasses.

So Far So Good: An Overviewof Positive Psychology and Its Contributions to SLA.- Powerfully Positive: Searching for a Model of Language LearnerWell-Being.- Difficulty and Coping Strategies in Language Education: Is  Positive Psychology Misrepresented inSLA/FLT?.- The Positive Broadening Power of a Focuson Well-Being in the Language Classroom.- Activating Character StrengthsThrough Poetic Encounters in a Foreign Language  A Case Study.- PedagogicalImplications of Positive Psychology:  PositiveEmotions and Human Strengths in Vocabulary Strategy Training.

Danuta Gabry[-Barker is Professor of English at theUniversity of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, where she lectures and supervises M.A.and Ph.D. theses in applied linguistics, psycholinguistics and especially insecond language acquisition. She also works as a teacher trainer. Her mainareas of interest are multilingualism (especially at the level of mentallexicon and syntax) and applied psycholinguistics (modalities, learner profilesand affectivity). As a teacher trainer she lectures on research methods insecond language acquisition and TEFL projects. Her major concern is the role ofaction research in teacher development. Prof. Gabry[-Barker has published overa hundred articles nationally as well as internationalll#.