Key words

• wellbeing,
• communication,
• language,
• Generation Z,
• inclusivity,
• communicative competence,
• digital body language,
• self.

Aim of the course

The main aim of the course is to familiarise students with the topic of well-being from the perspective of the humanities (with particular emphasis on linguistics and its areas) and social sciences (psychology, pedagogy, sociology). In addition to showing the connections between the various scientific fields and disciplines, and introducing and discussing basic concepts and trends, the aim of the course will be to discuss the current state of research on well-being and its transfer to various aspects of functioning in society, e.g. the development of communicative competence, the effectiveness of learning and skill acquisition, language and cultural acquisition, the need for (language) inclusivity. 

Course description

In the class, students will look at the concept of well-being from different perspectives, exploring the universality yet individualisation of the well-being-seeking process on a daily basis, e.g. considering the language and ways of communicating/willingness to communicate/anxieties, affective factors and their impact on communication. In the exercises and discussions, we will refer to current realities, e.g. talking about Generation Z, language inclusivity, language acquisition and multilingualism, digital body language, emotionality and different aspects of the self (e.g. self-awareness, self-acceptance, self-regulation, etc.), without which well-being cannot be built and developed.

Exercises will be designed so students from different disciplines can demonstrate their knowledge and share their experiences. This will be realised through a task/problem-based method and group/pair work, often using visual thinking, graphic facilitation and digital tools to facilitate group activation. Students will be stimulated to work on their own and self-development through the design of mini-research projects and the analysis of selected current source texts, literature from the humanities and social sciences, research tools from psycholinguistics, glottodidactics, etc., and digital sources in the form of TED talks, science podcasts, mind maps and sketch notes. 

Evaluation

(1) Oral test (50% of the mark) - individual discussion with the tutor on a drawn topic from the list of issues discussed in class.

(2) Continuous assessment (50% of the mark) - awarded on the basis of the average of the marks from mini projects and exercises carried out by the student in the class.