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Abstract
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Positive psychology (PP), focusing on the constructive effects of positive emotions on learners’ wellbeing and optimal performance, has arisen as an important area of study since the 21st century (Oladrostam, Rezaee and Nushi, 2022). Although there have been various studies focusing on PP such as Maclntyre and Dewaele (2014), Oxford (2014), Fang and Tang (2021) and Jin and Zhang (2021), Oxford (2016) admits that motivation to teach and learn, as one of the factors of PP, requires more investigation. So far, the concept of teacher motivation has been considered less than learner motivation (Dörnyei and Ushioda, 2011).
One of the concepts related to motivation is flow experience defined as “a state in which people are so intensely involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter in such a way that they would lose track of time and other external factors (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). When teachers are in a state of flow, students experience higher levels of cognitive engagement (Zhu, 2001) which is one of the three dimensions of engagement, namely behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). Krause and Coates (2008) define student engagement as “the extent to which students are engaging in activities that higher education research has shown to be linked with high-quality learning outcomes” (p. 493). The interplay between leaner engagement and teachers’ flow state is a key aspect of educational research, yet it remains uncharted territory in the contexts of English language teaching (ELT).
The relationship between learner engagement and teacher flow state has rarely been investigated; one such a study is conducted by Zhu (2001) which examined the effects of teachers’ flow state on students’ cognitive engagement. In the present study, the aim is to provide a comprehensive understanding of how different dimensions of learner engagement may impact the flow state of teachers. By examining these elements, strategies for fosteri
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