Operationalizing Learner Well-Being in ELT Textbooks: A Qualitative Study of Expert Reasoning and Methodological Constraints

This study investigated how experts in applied linguistics and positive psychology (PP) reason about the feasibility and limits of operationalizing complex psychological learner well-being constructs for English language teaching (ELT) textbook evaluation. While PP models such as EMPATHICS have substantially enriched theoretical understandings of learner well-being, their application to textbook evaluation raises unresolved methodological questions. Drawing on a qualitative, interpretive research design, the study foregrounded expert reasoning itself as the primary object of inquiry rather than treating expert consultation as a procedural step toward consensus or instrument validation. Data were collected through a recursive expert consultation process involving specialists in PP, English language education, and ELT materials development, and were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings showed that experts differ systematically in their judgments of construct observability, the role of contextual mediation, and the legitimacy of inferential claims based on textbook content. These disagreements were not attributable to technical deficiencies or lack of expertise, but to deeper epistemological orientations concerning evidence, pedagogy, and the relationship between texts and lived learning experience. By making visible the interpretive work underlying feasibility judgments, the study contributes to methodological debates on discourse- and materials-based analysis and argues for a more reflexive approach to applying holistic psychological models in ELT materials research.

کلیدواژه ها:

EMPATHICS ، English language teaching textbooks ، expert judgment ، positive psychology ، textbook evaluation