Speaker
Description
Since student wellbeing is gaining more attention in ELT, it is important to investigate how to tackle this rising concern in English learning, especially in productive skills such as speaking. This is how the PERMA model proposed by Seligman (2000, 2002, 2009, 2011) impressed ELT researchers. Consequently, being part of a bigger project, this study addressed the extent to which the five aspects of the PERMA model influenced EMP (English for Medical Purposes) students' speaking performance. The study took place in a university of Medicine and Pharmacy in the Mekong Delta with 675 students responding to the questionnaire. Aside from that, 06 voluntary students were interviewed to provide triangulated data for the study. The results indicated that the PERMA model influenced EMP students' speaking performance to a medium and above level. The rankings ranged from high to low with Accomplishment, Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationship, and Meaning in life. It was recommended that EMP lecturers take this into consideration when teaching English speaking to their EMP students. Eventually, this finding served as a reference to the construction of PERMA-based learning activities applied in English speaking lessons of the EMP courses in the later phase of the bigger project.
