本文是一篇英语毕业论文，本研究佐证了前人基于积极心理学视角下的二语习得研究，探讨了积极心理学干预对英语阅读能力及学业情绪的影响作用及其复杂关系，具有一定的理论意义及实践意义，一定程度上能够提升英语阅读教学，降低外语焦虑情绪，提高外语愉悦情绪，提高学生英语阅读能力;本研究拓展了积极心理学干预下的二语习得研究视角，不再局限于截面研究，而更多地聚焦于跟踪性研究。
Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Research background
In the 20th century, psychology was primarily concerned with human flaws. But by the 1960s, psychology slowly began to shift their focus to human strengths, which laid the foundation for the development of positive psychology. Seligman (2002), the father of positive psychology, pointed out that the reason why positive psychology was different from other psychology was that it no longer focused on the shortcomings, but shifted to the advantages. Positive psychology realized the all-round development of people by improving the developmental advantages. Since 1920s, positive psychology has entered the field of second language acquisition and created a boom (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). The development of positive psychology in the field of second language acquisition has made students feel happy and successful (Oxford, 2016; Jiang & Li, 2017; Strzalka, 2016; Szymczak, 2016).
In the development of humanistic psychology, emotional factors have also been involved in education, which have broken the previous situation of cognitive dominance and combined cognitive and emotional factors. Humanism has committed to promoting the all-round development of person, that is, the education of the whole person. Emotion and cognition have been not independent of each other, but complementary. Without positive emotional factors, students’ cognitive learning ability would be greatly reduced (Cheng, 2000). Since the 1970s, there has been a shift in the orientation of emotional factors, from negative orientation to positive orientation. In 2012, positive psychology entered the field of second language acquisition and began to attract the attention of second language learners. Positive psychology committed to realizing the shift from focusing solely on human weaknesses to understanding, cultivating and focusing on human strengths. This shift could be realized from three aspects of individual, group and society (Li, 2020).
1.2 Research significance
This study explores the relationship between emotional intelligence, academic emotions (FLE and FLCA) and academic achievement; the influence of positive psychology intervention on English reading; the advantages of English reading teaching based on positive psychology theory. The theoretical implications and practical implications of this study are as follows.
Theoretically, this study enriches the theory of positive psychology and promotes its further development in the field of second language acquisition. Positive psychology intervention plays an important role in improving academic achievement, increasing FLE and reducing FLCA. A new perspective was provided for this field, which not merely concentrated on cross-sectional studies, but also extended to following-up studies.
Practically, through the overall cognition of students’ mental state and reading proficiency, teachers can be more systematical in further reading teaching. By analyzing the complex relationship between emotional intelligence, academic emotions (FLE and FLCA) and academic achievement, this paper can reveal how these factors affect each other, and provide some implications for second language teaching. Positive psychology plays an important role in the field of second language acquisition. The two key factors, learner’s academic achievement and well-being, influence each other and jointly achieve full human beings. This study can cultivate students’ cognitive and affective qualities, as well as promoting their comprehensive development and self-actualization (Moskowitz, 1978; Stevick, 1990).
Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Positive psychology
Section2.1 is a review about positive psychology.
This section describes the development of positive psychology and the development of positive psychology in SLA.
2.1.1 The development of positive psychology
Positive psychology (PP) originated in the field of psychology in the 20th century in the United States. Before the 20th century, psychologists mostly focused on “what defects or problems human beings have” (Seligman, 2002). Especially after World War II, due to the widespread psychological traumas and fears left by war, researchers generally focused their research on weaknesses, defects, diseases, etc. (Lopez et al., 2015). Since the 1960s, there has been a shift from “What’s wrong with humans” to “what’s good about humans”. This question also laid the foundation for the development of positive psychology.
Positive psychology is a flourishing theory in the field of psychology. Its main goal is to realize the transformation from only identifying, preventing and repairing human defects to create and develope advantages that help human achieve success and self-realization (Seligman, 2002). Lopez defined positive psychology as the science and practice of exploring human advantages (Lopez et al., 2015). The emergence of positive psychology theory has great influence, bringing enlightenment to scientific research, life, work, education and other aspects. In 2000, American Psychologist established a regular and influential positive psychology column. In addition, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) formally proposed the objectives and three pillars of positive psychology. Since then, the important position of positive psychology has established in the field of psychology.
2.2 Three pillars
This section focuses on the three pillars of positive psychology. Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) elaborated positive psychology from three aspects: subjective level, individual level and collective level, which could also be called three pillars. The first pillar was the positive experiences, which consisted of the well-being, contentment and satisfaction about the past; flow and happiness about the present; and satisfaction, hope and optimism about the future. The second pillar was the positive individual traits, which included the capacity for love and mission, aesthetic sensibility, courage, interpersonal skills, future awareness, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, spirituality, talent and wisdom. The third pillar was the positive institutions, which included the civic virtues and systems that promote individuals become better citizenship. It included responsibility, nurturance, moderation, tolerance, altruism, civility, and work ethic. The following will be narrated one by one.
2.2.1 Positive experiences
The first pillar is positive experience, which belongs to the subjective level.
Broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson, 2001), PERMA model (Seligman, 2011) and EMPATHICS model all lay a theoretical foundation for positive experience at the subjective level.
Broaden-and-build theory shows the relationship between positive and negative emotions (Fredrickson, 2001, 2003). Before the broaden-and-build theory is proposed, negative emotions are a mainstream topic among psychologists such as anger, anxiety, and disgust. There is a one-to-one correspondence between certain behavioral tendencies and negative emotions, for example, anger can lead to aggression. When in a dangerous situation, negative emotions will narrow the scope of individual instant thinking and action, so that people can make a judgment in a short time and get out of the dilemma. Specific behavioral tendencies can explain the manifestations and functional mechanisms of most negative emotions, but there is no way to explain positive emotions. Positive emotions do not provide a response to critical situations and produce specific behavioral tendencies. Therefore, psychologists infer that positive and negative emotions have different adaptive meanings. The broaden-and-build theory holds that, contrary to negative emotions, positive emotions can expand the scope of individual instant thinking and action, and then construct lasting individual resources (e.g., intellectual resources, physical resources, psychological resources and social resources), thus bringing long-term adaptive benefits to individuals.
Chapter Three Research Methodology .................................... 23
3.1 Research questions ................................. 23
3.2 Research subjects ....................................... 23
3.3 Research instruments ................................. 23
Chapter Four Quantitative Results and Discussion ............................ 29
4.1 The overall profiles of emotional intelligence and classroom emotions ........ 29
4.1.1 The overall profile of emotional intelligence........................................ 29
4.1.2 The overall profile of foreign language enjoyment .............................. 30
Chapter Five Qualitative Results and Discussion ............................... 47
5.1 Students’ emotional experience and emotion regulation strategies ................ 47
5.1.1 Students’ emotional experience of enjoyment ...................................... 47
5.1.2 Students’ emotional experience of anxiety ........................................... 49
Chapter Five Qualitative Results and Discussion
5.1 Students’ emotional experience and emotion regulation strategies
Part 5.1 expounds the first question and the second question in interview. First, please describe your emotional experience of enjoyment and anxiety in English reading. (This question can be answered from reading training or daily reading experiences). Second, when you encounter difficulties and have anxiety in English reading, what will you do to solve it? (This question can be elaborated from the aspects of attitude, motivation, strategies, etc.).
5.1.1 Students’ emotional experience of enjoyment
Students’ emotional experience of FLE was mostly reflected in the process of doing English reading. If they could answer the questions correctly and timely, they would experience FLE. There was a positive correlation between students’ FLE and their English reading proficiency level or academic achievement. When students overcame a challenge or successfully passed a difficult training, students’ FLE and other positive emotions would increase.
LCF (low level, 44-76): I feel enjoyment when I have progress in English reading. For example, I master some new words; I am familiar with some types of questions; I learn some useful reading approaches; The correct rate of test is increased; My English reading proficiency level is improved.
Chapter Six Conclusions
6.1 Findings
This study explored the following two research objectives: (1) It revealed the complex relationship between English reading achievement, FLE, FLCA and EI. (2) It explored the influence of positive psychology intervention on English reading teaching. The first research objective corresponded to the first and second research questions, and the second research objective corresponded to the third and fourth research questions. The results were shown below.
6.1.1 Complex relationships between factors
In response to the overview of EI, FLE and FLCA, this study drew these conclusions as following. Most students were in the middle proficiency level of EI, which indicated that most students had the ability to monitor their own and others’ emotions, identified and used these information to guide their own thoughts and behaviors. The overall level of FLE was in the middle to high proficiency level, which indicated that most students had experienced a higher level of pleasure in English reading and enjoyed the process of English reading with a good attitude. The results of this study were contrary to those of Li (2020) and MacIntyre et al. (2019), who believed that Chinese second language learners had a low proficiency level of positive emotions. A smaller number of participants experienced very low or very high proficiency level of FLCA, and nearly half participants (46.8%) experienced middle to high proficiency level of FLCA. In general, participants experienced higher proficiency level of FLCA. So, emotion regulation strategies, especially for FLCA, became research emphasis of this study.
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