Positive emotions can build cognitive and emotional resources. From this perspective, the consensus of opinion is that positive emotions contribute to "approach behavior" or "continued action". That is to say, individuals experiencing positive emotions actively engage with their environment and participate in activities. This paper aims to address whether the Broaden-and-Build theory of positive emotions developed by Fredrickson may facilitate second language learning. In the light of this theory, it is argued that positive emotions can widen students' scope of attention, cognition and action, and further produce a tendency toward activity engagement. In contrast, negative emotions reinforce the opposite tendency, restricting the amount of potential language input and accordingly narrowing the students' capacity for learning. The paper concludes that positive emotions are closely associated with higher levels of students' engagement and negative emotions with lower levels of engagement. In general, therefore, it seems that second language teachers should go beyond a focus on the reduction of negative emotions towards a focus on the enhancement of positive emotions.

This study sought to elucidate the challenges of critical literacy practice in an Iranian context. The objectives were twofold: (a) to find out what challenges teachers and students face in the practice of critical literacy and (b) to explore the state of critical literacy in language education. To this end, a sample of 12 English teachers and 120 students majoring in TEFL took part in the study. Data collection procedure was based on students’ reflective notes, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observations. The analysis of the interviews revealed that factors including a) lack of the teachers' familiarity with the concept and tenets of critical literacy, b) students' poor English proficiency, c) lack of attention to critical literacy in curriculum and d) political issues were the major challenges. Classroom observations and students' reflective notes showed that teachers did not encourage students to become involved in  ideologies imbedded in the texts.