As the forerunners of education, teachers and their psycho-affective variables have been the focus of numerous studies in the past decades. To add to this line of inquiry, the present study aimed to scrutinize the correlation among English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' self-efficacy, work engagement, and reflection in the context of China. To do so, three previously validated questionnaires related to each of the variables were distributed among Chinese EFL teachers with various experiences and academic degrees, and a sample of 614 completed the questionnaires. The results of Pearson's Product-moment correlation revealed that the participants' self-efficacy, work engagement, and reflection were positively correlated. Moreover, the results of regression analysis and ANOVA demonstrated that Chinese EFL teachers' self-efficacy and work engagement significantly predicted their reflection. The findings have viable takeaways for EFL teachers and teacher education programs in that they can invest more time and energy in promoting psychological factors in teaching the English language along with pedagogical issues.

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Investigating the Correlation Among Chinese EFL Teachers' Self-efficacy, Work Engagement, and Reflection.

Second/foreign language teaching has been found as one of the most emotional professions worldwide. To generate optimal academic outcomes and run an effective education, teachers and students’ emotions and feelings must be positively cared for. Given the significance of emotions in L2 education, many studies have followed positive psychology (PP) and examined various positive constructs. Nevertheless, love, as a PP variable, has been ignored in education due to its cultural/religious sensitivities. Trying to dispel the myths, recently, a new trend called a “loving pedagogy” has started to find itself a place in second language acquisition (SLA) research and practice. Yet, proposing a model of its application and an agenda for its research has been overlooked by scholars in this domain. Motivated by this lacuna, this research article provided the conceptualization, definitions, research bases, practical models, and implications of a loving pedagogy for SLA practitioners and future researchers.

Positioning an Agenda on a Loving Pedagogy in Second Language Acquisition: Conceptualization, Practice, and Research

Given the significance of teachers’ professional success in the adequacy of education, exploring the determinants of this variable appears crucial. To address this need, this inquiry inspected the role of well-being and emotion regulation in Chinese EFL teachers’ professional success. For this purpose, 357 Chinese EFL teachers were selected to answer three pre-designed questionnaires. Structural equation modeling (SEM) using Smart-PLS was implemented to analyze teacher participants’ responses. The structural model revealed a strong, favorable connection between well-being, emotion regulation, and professional success. The model also demonstrated that both well-being and emotion regulation were highly influential in Chinese EFL teachers’ professional success. The potential implications for EFL teachers, teacher educators, and educational authorities are further discussed.

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English as a foreign language teachers’ professional success in the Chinese context: The effects of well-being and emotion regulation

Scholarly attention to the feeling of enjoyment experienced in second language acquisition (SLA) has sharply increased in the past 5 years owing to its positive effect on facilitating academic outcomes as well as promoting language learners' well-being. This sequential mixed methods study aims to examine the interplay between Foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and learner engagement (LE) as well as their combined effects on participants' EFL achievement and absenteeism. To this end, we administrated a questionnaire containing the adapted FLE Scale and the four-aspect engagement inventory among 707 Chinese university students and a semi-structured interview among 28 of them. Statistical analysis revealed that FLE was highly and positively correlated with LE, and the causal relationship between the two constructs was reciprocal. Furthermore, both FLE and LE had low correlations with participants' academic achievements, but no significant correlation was found between FLE or LE and absenteeism. However, a higher level of FLE-social was associated with a lower level of absenteeism. Finally, no gender differences were found either in the level FLE or in that of LE. The thematic analysis indicated that FLE was subject substantially to teacher-related variables and the second most significant attractor of FLE was FLE-self. Analysis of the trends of LE indicated that Chinese EFL learners preferred to engage themselves in their English study more emotionally, behaviorally, and cognitively than agentically. Pedagogical implications of the findings for EFL practitioners are also discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.

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Exploring the Dynamic Interplay Between Foreign Language Enjoyment and Learner Engagement With Regard to EFL Achievement and Absenteeism: A Sequential Mixed Methods Study.

A mixed-methods cross-cultural study of teacher care and teacher-student rapport in Iranian and Polish University students’ engagement in pursuing academic goals in an L2 context

In addressing the recent special issue in Frontiers in Psychology, namely "Positive Psychology in Foreign and Second Language Education: Approaches and Applications," calling language education researchers around the globe to study positive emotions, positive personality traits, and positive institutional tendencies and their implications for language education systems, stakeholders, and policy practices, the present conceptual review paper aims to acquaint language education researchers, practitioners, instructors, and learners with the main tenets of positive psychology and their application in second/foreign language (L2) education research. Accordingly, by drawing on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, we explain how individuals' positivity can result in their flourishment and development in any aspect of life, including L2 learning and teaching. Then, we introduce and conceptualize seven instances of positive psychology variables, namely academic engagement, emotion regulation, enjoyment, grit, loving pedagogy, resilience, and well-being and explain how these positive factors contribute to desirable L2 learning and teaching experiences. Subsequently, potential theoretical and pedagogical implications are drawn to enhance the quality and effectiveness of language education systems and their respective stakeholders. In the end, the limitations of the studies in this area are explicated, and suggestions for future research are provided to expand the extant literature on positive psychology in the domain of L2 education.

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Researching and Practicing Positive Psychology in Second/Foreign Language Learning and Teaching: The Past, Current Status and Future Directions.

With the emergence of the positive psychology trend, studying teacher resilience has gained tremendous momentum in mainstream education. Nonetheless, it has yet remained an underappreciated concept in English language education and research. The challenges that teachers experience in maintaining their resilience have also been the focus of a limited number of inquiries. To address these gaps, the present investigation set out to explore the challenges of sustaining resilience among Chinese and Iranian EFL teachers. In doing so, an open-ended questionnaire was administered to 18 Chinese and 15 Iranian EFL teachers, varying in age from 30 to 55 years old. Adopting a qualitative model of data analysis, the participants’ responses to the open-ended questionnaire were analyzed through MAXQDA software. The analysis of Chinese and Iranian EFL teachers’ answers resulted in the generation of 16 themes and 50 subthemes, demonstrating the challenges to teacher resilience. Findings indicated that both Chinese and Iranian EFL teachers perceived person-focused factors to be the major challenges of preserving teacher resilience. Other factors, including system-focused, context-focused, and process-focused factors, were conceived to be less problematic for teacher resilience. Finally, some major implications of the findings are presented and thoroughly discussed. 

Yongliang Wang

Papers

Researching and Practicing Positive Psychology in Second/Foreign Language Learning and Teaching: The Past, Current Status and Future Directions.

Investigating the Correlation Among Chinese EFL Teachers' Self-efficacy, Work Engagement, and Reflection.

Positioning an Agenda on a Loving Pedagogy in Second Language Acquisition: Conceptualization, Practice, and Research

Developing resilience among Chinese and Iranian EFL teachers: A multi-dimensional cross-cultural study

English as a foreign language teachers’ professional success in the Chinese context: The effects of well-being and emotion regulation