This book argues that, in line with the tenets of positive psychology in SLA and the rhetorical/relational goal theory, positive teacher-student interpersonal relationships are deemed to be of great significance for empowering students to accomplish favorable academic outcomes and to successfully learn a second/foreign language (L2), whether at its affective, behavioral, or cognitive levels. Therefore, understanding the role of teacher interpersonal behaviors and their effect on students' learning gains in the domain of SLA is of utmost importance, particularly as this line of research is at its nascent stage of development, and, as a result, available empirical evidence is still inconclusive. To address this issue, drawing on the mixed methods design, this book mainly aims to, first, empirically scrutinize the role of "5Cs" positive teacher interpersonal variables (i.e., care, clarity, closeness, confirmation, and credibility) in L2 students' affective, behavioral, and cognitivelearning outcomes through the mediation of student-perceived learner empowerment in the L2 context of Iran. Second, it is intended to show how L2 teacher educators, teachers, and materials developers, among other key educational stakeholders, can facilitate the provision of interpersonally rich language learning environments with the ultimate goal of enhancing students' L2 learning.

Autorentext

Ali Derakhshan is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the English Language and Literature Department, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran. He gained his MA in TEFL from the University of Tehran and his PhD in Applied Linguistics from Allameh Tabataba'i University. He was selected as a distinguished researcher by the Teaching English Language and Literature Society of Iran in 2021. He has been a member of the Iranian Elites Foundation since 2015. He has published in both accredited international journals (Review of Educational Research, Computers and Education, Language Teaching Research, System, Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, ELT Journal, Current Psychology, Asia Pacific Education Researcher, Educational Studies, Frontiers in Psychology, etc.) and various local journals. His research interests are positive psychology, teacher education, learner individual differences, and cross-cultural interpersonal factors in educational psychology, interlanguage pragmatics, and intercultural communication.