An intervention study on the influence of altruistic teaching on L2 learners’ English research article abstract writing

A large mass of research has reported the significance and power of positive psychology (PP) constructs in second/foreign language (L2) education. As an offshoot of PP, altruistic teaching, which highlights teaching without self-focus, has recently initiated its way into L2 research territory. However, the way altruistic teaching influences L2 students’ academic literacy skills, such as abstract writing, has been left uncharted to date. To bridge this gap, the present study used an experimental design to investigate the contribution of altruistic teaching to 163 university students’ English abstract writing required in research article (RA)s. The results of t-test and ANOVA indicated a statistically significant difference between the learners’ RA abstract writing in the control and experimental groups in both the short and long run in light of altruistic teaching. The study discusses the results and presents the implications of altruistic teaching for L2 research and practice.