The Impact of Positive Psychology-based Classroom on English Speaking Teaching and Learning of EFL College Students

Abstract

Positive psychology (PP) insists that a positive environment can promote intrinsic motivation and self-construction. To explore and verify whether a positive classroom environment in English speaking teaching can enhance EFL college students’ classroom engagement and boost their speaking proficiency and examine the practice of applying a PP-based positive classroom environment to spoken language teaching of EFL college students, this research takes two English classes in Z University as the research objects, employing PP as the theoretical framework to create a positive classroom environment, adopting a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, and conducts a comparative experiment for one semester. The research finds that speaking teaching of EFL college students based on a positive classroom environment can enhance EFL students’ classroom engagement and boost their speaking proficiency. To go a step further, this research, based on the teaching practice, summarizes the methods and strategies of creating a positive classroom environment and provides a teaching sample for reference, thus offering theoretical support and practical recommendations for speaking teaching and learning of EFL college students.