A data-based model of language teachers’ psychological literacy

Few teacher education courses address the psychology of language learning and teaching explicitly, despite considerable evidence showing just how important such factors can be in determining the effectiveness of language teaching and learning. In this paper, we report on a study that sought to investigate what two sets of experts believe that language teachers at secondary-level schools might find useful to know about psychology for language learning and teaching; in other words, their psychological literacy. Qualitative data were generated with international researchers in the field of psychology of language learning and teaching ( n = 26) and language teachers ( n = 21) in order to combine theoretical, empirical, and practice-based perspectives on psychological literacy. The participants were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling. Data were generated using online focus groups and semi-structured interviews conducted in English, which yielded a corpus of approximately 185,000 words. The data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. The findings indicate that psychological literacy can be conceptualized as comprising knowledge for understanding psychological issues pertaining to both teachers and learners and also being able to act appropriately on this knowledge in terms of a set of skills. Both teachers and researchers largely overlapped in their perceptions of suitable content, but there were also key distinctions determined largely by their different experiences. Interesting issues arose around perspectives on how such knowledge can be developed and the extent to which it changes according to the culture and age of learners and teachers. Our hope is that this initial study can pave the way for practical interventions as well as further research to support educators in their understanding of the psychology surrounding language learning and teaching experiences.