Publications

Over the decades, extensive research efforts have been directed towards classifying and evaluating motivational teaching behaviours. Recent calls in motivational research, however, have emphasised the need to investigate teachers’ perspectives on how they develop effective motivational strategies so that implications for motivational teaching are firmly grounded in real-life practices. This paper reports on a qualitative case study which explored how two IELTS teachers in a private language school in China selected and enacted motivational strategies that they perceived as context-appropriate. Background interviews, classroom observations, and post-lesson stimulated recall interviews were used to gain insight into the participants’ motivational practices and rationales. The findings indicate that, despite the close correspondence between the teachers’ enacted practices and theory-based motivational strategies defined by researchers, the teachers exhibited agentic capacities in managing a range internal and external mediators which enabled them to develop strategies that served concurrent pedagogical purposes and responded to the perceived multidimensional particularities and exigencies of their teaching contexts. Thus, The study moves beyond restricted analyses of the motivational implications of teaching techniques; rather, it argues for the need to appreciate the full complexity of teaching practices and re-conceptualise motivational strategies as multipurpose and the study of them as pedagogically holistic.

This volume introduces pedagogical approaches and empirical studies that emphasize deeper, embodied engagement with language, the transformative potential of the language learning experience, and the importance of learner and teacher well-being. A deep learning orientation sees foreign language learning not as a psychologically neutral process of internalising linguistic rules but as an embodied process that is intimately tied to learners' experience of self, including emotion, body states, metaphoric understanding, aesthetic sensibilities, and moral intuitions. This volume challenges language teachers and teacher trainers to move beyond instrumentalist views of language learning, to recognise the deeply impactful nature of the language learning experience, and to consider how language pedagogy can contribute to the development of the learner as a whole person.

While the influence of learning experiences on foreign language learning motivation has been widely recognised, there is very little empirical research examining its role. To fill this lacuna, the current study theorises language learning experience from a positive psychology (PP) lens with reference to the PERMA model. Analytical primacy is given to how various dimensions of the experience contributed to language other than English (LOTE) learners' motivational development. Using convenient sampling, data were collected through written reports and semi-structured interviews with eight international LOTE learners of Chinese and examined with thematic analysis. Findings indicate that PERMA could be a holistic framework within which the language learning experience could be appropriately interpreted. As revealed, the participants' LOTE learning experience was replete with emotions which were intertwined with experiences of engagement, relationship, meaning and accomplishment. It is also found that the various dimensions of experience interacted with each other over the learning process and shaped learners’ LOTE motivation in both positive and negative ways. Implications are discussed which point to the significance of integrating PP principles into language classrooms to increase LOTE motivation.

Learner engagement has gained increasing interest in recent years in general educational psychology and the field of language learning. However, challenges in defining and operationalising the concept have resulted in overlapping notions and large variation in its measurement, making it challenging to compare findings across studies (Fredricks & McColskey, 2012). This study aims to address some of these challenges by developing and piloting a questionnaire measuring intensity and perceived quality of engagement in L2 classrooms. The questionnaire was piloted with 378 learners in England and the findings suggest that engagement could be measured with five scales: intensity of effort in learning, intensity of social engagement, perceived quality of engagement with the teacher, perceived quality of engagement with peers and perceived quality of engagement with learning activities. A further examination of the data indicates that learners score higher in the intensity of effort than the social aspects of learning or the perceived quality of their participation. Overall, this study shows that the proposed instrument may provide a reliable tool for measuring L2 engagement in this context, providing a new, clearer way to further our understanding of the concept and ensuring greater validity of research.

Literature on acculturation, which refers to the cultural adaptation of migrants to a new environment, is explored in the present article from a multidimensional perspective. This paper delineates the evolution of the concept, and touches upon the most used frameworks, related variables, and suggestions for future research. Humans are extremely adaptable and intelligent cultural entities, whose actions follow complex social behavior patterns. Scientific research based on human adaptation to new environments has evolved from the ‘melting pot’ metaphor to a social science field. Acculturation is vital for our understanding of not only migration-associated phenomena, but it represents the intertwining of psychology, sociology, anthropology, law, education, in a profoundly intercultural context.

Learner engagement has been the focus of a growing amount of research in recent years both in general educational psychology and the field of second language acquisition (SLA). However, while recent contributions on learner engagement in language classrooms have provided valuable insights, the field is still only at the early stages of understanding the complexity of the concept and creating a strong empirical evidence base. This study is intended to contribute to our current understanding by investigating both learners’ and teachers’ perceptions on what might prevent motivated second language (L2) learners from engaging with language learning in and out of classrooms. A total of 39 learners and teachers were interviewed in two countries, England and Finland, and the results indicate a variety of potential reasons for motivated learners’ disengagement, including disengaging classroom tasks and activities, the challenge of language learning, as well as competing priorities in learners’ lives. These findings point to potential practical ways of ensuring that learners’ motivation translates into engagement

The present study investigates English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ use of motivational strategies (MS) in Hungarian high schools. It also seeks to identify whether students recognize these strategies. Keller’s (2010) motivational model was employed through the instructional materials motivational survey (IMMS) questionnaire that was translated into Hungarian. A population of 117 Hungarian high school students from grades 9 to 12 filled out questionnaires on their teachers’ use of MS, and 62 high school teachers completed the same questionnaire to report their MS. Classroom observa- tions were also conducted following the Motivational Orientation of Language Teaching (MOLT) scheme proposed by Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008). For each grade, face-to-face and online classes were observed. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to process the data. The results show that teachers’ mean scores for all the ARCS categories were higher than those of students, with significant differences between students’ and teachers’ views on attention and relevance. Teachers reported using satisfaction-generating strategies most often, while the observation results indicated that the most frequently used strategy was attention. Students’ grades had no correlation with students’ perception of the use of MS, which might be due to the homogeneity of the sample selected.

This book offers rare insights obtained from a longitudinal study of motivation among extremely successful learners of English and languages other than English (LOTEs), examining the factors involved in becoming multilingual in a non-multilingual environment. Based on sixteen interview sessions, conducted over the course of nine years while the learners progressed from high school to the world of work, this book offers the story of how two learners persist in English/LOTE learning. The study illuminates the long-term processes through which the interviewees develop ideal English/LOTE selves in an environment where multilingualism is not emphasized and where both English and LOTEs can still be described as foreign languages. Educators and researchers will learn from this case which stretches our understanding of motivation beyond the recent theorizing of L2 motivation and the study contributes to the dearth of research in long-term motivational trajectories and LOTE learning motivation, which is particularly scarce in non-European contexts. The book will be of interest not only to readers in Japan but also to those in other contexts as it offers an example of successful learners who go beyond the pragmatic and instrumentalist view of language learning to hold a more holistic view, thus revealing the factors which can sustain multiple language learning, even in foreign language contexts.

How do some language learners triumph against all odds, despite not having obvious heritage links or spending extended periods of time in the L2 environment pre-adulthood? This book delves into the autobiographical stories of learners who achieve nativelike proficiency, opening a narrative window into their experiences and offering insights into their pathways to success. The in-depth analysis ties together a wide range of potentially relevant topics, from motivational vision and international posture to issues of identity, endurance and even musical ability, among other themes. The authors explore whether these successes can be repeated by others and the book will be of use to language teachers interested in learner motivation and the antecedents to high-level ultimate attainment. The book will also be of great interest to researchers working in the areas of language learner psychology, especially in topics concerning language learning motivation, identity and narrative inquiry

It is generally understood that most language learners beyond a certain age are unlikely to ever reach nativelike proficiency in their second language. However, there exists a unique population of gifted adult learners who do triumph against all odds and achieve nativelike proficiency, and their learning experiences have thus far remained a largely untapped gold mine. The companion to Lessons from Exceptional Language Learners Who Have Achieved Nativelike Proficiency, this volume presents the autobiographical learning stories of 30 such exceptional individuals, opening a narrative window into their learning experiences. This rich corpus of success stories reveals the many steps of these language learning journeys and the learners' pathways to success. A fascinating and readable collection of personal stories, this volume will be of interest to non-specialist language learners as a motivational primer for their own studies as well as researchers working in language learning psychology, who will find the unique database of learner narratives a useful tool for future research.

Identifying students’ reasons for learning a language is useful for every teacher who aims to help students achieve their goals. In addition, understanding how their language learning motivation is maintained through the class and to what extent this continues away from the classroom are equally important, especially in noncompulsory adult ESOL. Following Ushioda’s (2016) call for a small lens approach, one class of female, adult ESOL learners was studied to discover factors influencing their language learning motivation whilst attending a multilevel class in England. Data was collected over a period of 8 weeks through classroom observations, motigraphs, and interviews. Dorney's L2 motivational self‐system theory (2009) was employed as a means of analysis and the findings appear to suggest that the learning experience and ought‐to second language (L2) self have the largest impact on the participants’ motivation in this context. The study concludes with pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research in this often overlooked field of enquiry.

Teaching in a way that motivates students to learn and grow is a ubiquitous goal in language teaching and language teacher education. Although the existing literature has looked into various motivational strategies that can enhance or maintain L2 students’ motivation, there is currently little research on teachers’ mental lives behind their motivational teaching practices. This qualitative case study thus explored teachers’ pedagogical intentions while implementing motivational strategies. Drawing on data from semi-structured background interviews, classroom observations, and post-lesson stimulated recall interviews, this study shows that teachers’ enactment of motivational strategies was influenced by their awareness of the intentions to motivate as well as the intentions to facilitate student learning. Furthermore, the study provides evidence of the potential of stimulated recall for awareness-raising. Based on these findings, we provide practical recommendations for using stimulated recall for maximising the pedagogical potential of motivational strategies in the language classroom.

Future second language (L2) self-images have proven integral to L2 motivation, prompting several attempts to purposefully develop learners’ ideal L2 selves over the past decade through the use of vision-building techniques. Some of these ‘vision interventions’ have reported successfully enhancing learners’ L2 self-images and motivation; other studies, however, diverge from an unqualified success narrative, citing for example a lack of increase in learner effort despite stronger future vision. Data collection has also been typically restricted to the period of the intervention itself, and so insight into the long-term take-up of the introduced techniques, or how potential outcomes develop over time, remains limited. To gain further understanding into such issues, we have charted the evolving nature of the L2 vision intervention over the past decade, and complemented the learning from previous studies by conducting a five-week vision-building course with 25 learners of English for academic purposes (EAP) in the UK university-pathway system. Interview data gathered over the course of 10 months – the longest investigation of vision-building we are aware of – demonstrated fluctuating engagement with visualization, and accordingly, our analysis looks critically at the notion of self-image-centred intervention in instructed second language acquisition (SLA). While we believe that L2 vision can indeed be consciously enhanced, we argue that success depends largely on how general principles are adapted to specific learning contexts. The discussion highlights challenges that instructors may encounter in staging such interventions, and offers practical lessons for using self-images in the classroom.

In accordance with the multilingual turn in SLA (May, S. 2014. Introducing the ‘multilingual turn’. In The Multilingual Turn: Implications for SLA, TESOL and Bilingual Education, ed. S. May, 1–6. New York, NY: Routledge), researchers are now directing more attention to the motivational dynamics associated with learning multiple languages, including the interrelationships between motivation and learners’ sense of self. In contrast to research focused on language learners’ psychological relationship to languages from the perspective of self-systems, this research instead takes a more identity-focused perspective that looks at motivation in light of learners’ orientations towards ideological discourses associated with languages. It draws on longitudinal qualitative interviews and supplementary data from five Chinese university students in Shanghai who are majoring in Japanese while continuing to study English. The analysis highlights that the learners experienced a number of important identity-tensions as they attempted to reconcile ideological discourses on language with their own multi-layered identity positions and perspectives towards language learning. The discussion details the ways that learners mobilise their interpretive resources to evaluate instrumental and humanistic orientations towards language within macro-, meso- and micro- contexts and make agentive decisions that shape their motivational trajectories and multilingual identities.