Abstract :
There are good reasons for language educators to engage, systematically and deliberately, in enhancing positive psychological capacity alongside the promotion of linguistic skills. The skills necessary for developing wellbeing are not optional in the 21st century; they are a pedagogical, social, and economic necessity. In an approach similar to that used in CLIL, the Positive Education movement uses a double helix metaphor to argue that education should be achieving academic and life skill goals simultaneously across all subjects. In language education specifically, we argue that non-linguistic and linguistic aims can be interwoven in practice in sustainable ways that do not compromise the development of either skill set, or overburden educators. We consider the language learning context as ideally positioned to facilitate the learning of life skills through language use and learning. In fact, many language teachers are already promoting several of these life competences in order to facilitate language learning such as growth mindset, socio-emotional competence, resilience, self-confidence, and collaboration skills. However, many teachers’ efforts are undertaken in an ad hoc way with little training or support, without practical frameworks or empirical grounding.
Under the banner of Positive Language Education, we recognize a trend toward increasing awareness of the need to consider the whole person in local and global contexts. Luthans et al. (2004) emphasize that the world economy is moving toward placing greater value on personal strengths such as confidence, hope, optimism and resilience. Developing a framework of Positive Language Education can be empirically validated and implemented in diverse cultural and linguistic settings without prescriptivism, and in sustainable ways. The wellbeing of learners and teachers is not an optional extra but is a fundamental foundation of the skill sets both need to cope in their personal and professional lives in the future.
