PRE-SERVICE ESL TEACHERS’ PARTICIPATION IN A VIRTUAL COMMUNITY: A POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY VIEW

Abstract

This qualitative research was carried out to investigate a group of pre-service ESL teachers’ perceptions of their participation in a virtual community to facilitate their willingness to communicate. Positive Psychology was employed as the theoretical framework. Using the hybrid approach to analyse the findings, preliminary analysis revealed that the participants repeatedly mentioned the emergence of positive emotions. To understand better, a codebook based on Fredrickson’s framework of positive emotion was developed to further analyse the data. Findings indicated that participation in a virtual community led to the emergence of four types of positive emotions: interest, hope, pride, and aspiration. This article provided some suggestions for teacher educators on the use of a virtual community to facilitate willingness to communicate.