TESOL as Happiness Praxis: Designing a Happiness Intervention Program in TESOL and Exploring its Effectiveness in the Enhancement of Authentic Happiness among Advanced EFL Learners

The present study aimed to address some of the concerns regarding the humanization of L2 teaching materials. The overall argument of this dissertation was that L2 learning environments should be seen as proper sites where a pedagogy of happiness can be incorporated. Although a few attempts have been recently made by some TESOL practitioners to create a link between TESOL and the science of happiness by designing activities that purport to combine happiness with supposedly clear language goals, we argued that these works lack theoretical and empirical adequacy. Specifically, what are missing in these works seem to be a sound theoretical foundation for the adoption of a particular theory of happiness in TESOL and an empirical justification as to the effectiveness of linking happiness studies to L2 teaching materials. This study thus intended to fill these lacunae in both theory and practice. This was carried out in 5 major phases: In Phase 1, we advocated a pedagogy of happiness in TESOL by taking a closer look at the theoretical plausibility and feasibility of our scheme of happiness and, ultimately, introducing a conceptual pathway for reaching and teaching happiness in TESOL. In Phase 2 of the study we adopted a Mixed Methods Sequential Explanatory Design to data collection and analysis to seek out L2 teachers’ perceptions toward the inclusion of happiness components in L2 teaching materials. In doing so, we needed to develop a Happiness Teaching Perceptions Inventory (HTPI), examine its internal consistency and underlying factor structure through the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), and carry out follow-up semi-structured interviews with the teachers. A conglomeration of the findings of quantitative and qualitative investigations demonstrated that English teachers have consensus on the totality of happiness teaching in language classes. However, more in-depth interviews revealed different areas of constraint that EFL teachers pointed out might put into question the very practice of teaching happiness in L2 teaching contexts, particularly in the peculiar EFL context of Iran. In Phase 3, based on the three-component model of authentic happiness, which blends experience of positive emotions, engagement in life activities, and achieving a sense of purpose or meaning in life, efforts were made at designing a happiness intervention program in terms of happiness-oriented materials and component-specific happiness-boosting tasks for advanced learners of English. Phase 4 of the study rested on a quasi-experimental investigation of whether the implementation of the newly-developed happiness intervention program could indeed be effective in enhancing L2 learners’ levels of authentic happiness while they built their English. Having exploited a between-groups design, particularly a Pre-test/Post-test Control Group Design, the results from two Paired Samples T-tests indicated that learners in the experimental group obtained significantly higher happiness scores in the post-test in comparison to their pre-test scores, the case which was not observed in the control group. Moreover, compared to the baseline test of language, the post-test scores of learners in both groups demonstrated equally significant improvements with a large effect size of 0.9. In Phase 5 of the study we sought out the reflections of intervention participants on the effectiveness of the newly designed program. In doing so, semi-structured interviews were conducted with learners who gave us insights into their language learning experiences intervened with happiness-bolstering tasks. In the end, we put forth our Happiness Intervention Model (HIM) in TESOL.