Positive Psychology Perspectives on Foreign Language Learning and Teaching

Danuta Gabryś-Barker is Professor of English at the
University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, where she lectures and supervises M.A.
and Ph.D. theses in applied linguistics, psycholinguistics and especially in
second language acquisition. She also works as a teacher trainer. Her main
areas of interest are multilingualism (especially at the level of mental
lexicon and syntax) and applied psycholinguistics (modalities, learner profiles
and affectivity). As a teacher trainer she lectures on research methods in
second language acquisition and TEFL projects. Her major concern is the role of
action research in teacher development. Prof. Gabryś-Barker has published over
a hundred articles nationally as well as internationally and a book Aspects of
multilingual storage, processing and retrieval, Katowice: University of Silesia
Press, 2005 and Reflectivity in pre-service teacher education which came out in
2012.  She has edited nine volumes, among
others a volume Morphosyntactic Issues in Second Language Acquisition
(Multilingual Matters, 2008), Topics in Applied Psycholinguistics (University
of Silesia Press, 2015) and co-edited The Affective Dimension in Second
Language Acquisition (Multilingual Matters, 2013). She is the Vice-president of
the Polish Association for the Study of English (PASE) and a Board member of
International Association of Multilingualism. She is the editor-in-chief
(together with Eva Vetter) of the International Journal of Multilingualism
(Taylor & Francis/Routledge).

Dagmara Gałajda received her Ph.D. degree in linguistics
from the University of Silesia, where she works as assistant professor. The
research area of her doctoral thesis concentrated on willingness to communicate
(WTC) in L1 and L2 and on other related communication variables like
communication apprehension (CA) and self-perceived communicative competence.
Apart from communication studies, her research interests focus on teacher's
action zone in facilitating group dynamics, affect in language learning, individual
learner differences in SLA / FLL and reflective teaching. Recent publications
include: Teacher's Action Zone in
Facilitating Group Dynamics in M. Pinto (ed.) (2012) Linguarum Arena Vol. 3, Anxiety and perceived communication
competence as predictors of willingness to communicate in ESL/FL classroom in
D. Gabryś-Barker, J. Bielska (eds) (2013) The Affective Dimension in Second
Language Acquisition. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, Communication
apprehension and self-perceived communication competence as variables
underlying willingness to communicate in K. Piątkowska, E.
Kościałkowska-Okońska (eds) (2013) Correspondences and Contrasts in Foreign
Language Pedagogy and Translation Studies. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Currently
she is co-editing  Young Scholars on
Theoretical and Applied Linguistics: Research Projects Oficyna Wydawnicza –
Wyższa Szkoła Humanitas (together with Maria Wysocka, Artur Kijak and Paweł
Zakrajewski).