Call for papers 1/2027 - Reframing Language Teaching through Positive Psychology

2025-10-23

‘Happiness’, ‘grit’, ‘altruism’, ‘gratitude’, ‘well-being’ are all well-known and much strived for concepts in life in general and especially when young people are concerned. Yet when looking at research into the state of the world and the young generation, it would seem that ‘anxiety’, ‘depression’, ‘disorders’ and ‘loneliness’ are unfortunately terms that appear more frequently in describing a current, much reported on mental health crisis (see McGorry et al. (2025), Helliwel et al. (2025), or the World mental health report (2022)).

Resignation does not help; we would rather like to shed a positive light on how to face the challenge and respond to this demanding situation. Looking into the field of positive psychology - which includes elements of the ethics of care, culturally responsive teaching, social-emotional learning and more – offers a return to the humanizing education by refocusing on strengths and positive attributes. In this issue of Babylonia, we would like to contribute to what Sambanis/Ludwig (2025: 7) described as positive foreign language methodology. This field began with Seligman in 2011, quickly went to the field of Second Language Acquisition (MacIntyre and Mercer, 2014), and then more specifically to foreign language teaching and teacher training through the EMPATHICS model proposed by Oxford (2016). This original model has been refined to focus on the dimensions of Emotions, Empathy, Engagement, Emotional Intelligence, Motivation and Character strengths (E4MC model by Alrabai and Dewaele, 2023). Such positive psychology frameworks can greatly benefit both language teachers and learners.

In this issue of Babylonia, we are seeking contributions pertaining to pre-service language teacher education and public-school foreign language teaching that:

  • Are founded in frameworks and concepts stemming from the field of positive psychology;
  • Focus on either on institutional, teacher, or learner perspectives;
  • Combine theoretical frameworks and concepts with practical examples;
  • Are critical yet practical;
  • Are novel.

Our deadlines are the following:

  • Abstract submission: May 1, 2026
  • Notification of acceptance: by July 2026
  • Article submission: September 1, 2026
  • Feedback from the editorial team: by end of September 2026
  • Final version due: January 2027
  • Layout: January / February 2027
  • Publication: April 2027

Please send your abstract to Laura Loder Buechel (laura.buechel@phzh.ch) by May 1, 2026.

Editorial team: Laura Loder Buechel, Nikola Mayer, Jean-Marc Dewaele & Amelia Lambelet

References

Alrabai, F., & Dewaele, J. M. (2023). Transforming the EMPATHICS model into a workable E4MC model of language learner well-being. The Journal for the Psychology of Language Learning, 5(1), 1-14.

Dewaele, J. M., Chen, X., Padilla, A. M., & Lake, J. (2019). The flowering of positive psychology in foreign language teaching and acquisition research. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2128.

Helliwell, J. F., Layard, R., Sachs, J. D., De Neve, J.-E., Aknin, L. B., & Wang, S. (Eds.). (2025).  World Happiness Report 2025.  University of Oxford: Wellbeing Research Centre.

MacIntyre, P. D. & Mercer, S. (2014), “Introducing Positive Psychology to SLA.” Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4 (2): 153–72.

McGorry, P., Gunasiri, H., Mei, C., Rice, S., & Gao, C. X. (2025). The youth mental health crisis: analysis and solutions. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1517533.

Oxford, R. L. (2016). Toward a psychology of well-being for language learners: The “EMPATHICS” vision. In P. D. MacIntyre, T. Gregersen, & S. Mercer (Eds.), Positive psychology in SLA (pp. 10–87). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Sambanis, M., & Ludwig, C. (Eds.). (2025). Positive Fremdsprachendidaktik. Narr Francke Attempto Verlag.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. New York: Atria Books

World mental health report: transforming mental health for all. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2022. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.