Advocating a pedagogy of happiness in TESOL: Antecedents and potentialities

Among the many topics discussed in positive psychology and life skills education, happiness enjoys a distinctive stature. In practical terms, an essential hallmark of the positive psychology movement would reasonably be to develop intervention programs that enhance individuals’ happiness and sustain such improvement over time. Having reviewed the antecedents of positive psychology and life skills education as to the importance of improving well-being in education, as well as the topic of happiness and the extent to which it is teachable, in this paper we shall argue that the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) can be a unique venue for adopting a pedagogy of happiness, offering distinctive potentials for conducting happiness intervention programs.

Positive psychology, life skills education, happiness, well-being, TESOL, applied ELT, life syllabus