Directed Motivational Currents and Language Education. Christine Muir
outcomes’ (Barsade & Gibson, 2012: 119). In fact, they argue that group affect is an essential element of a group’s development (Barsade & Gibson, 2012), and group positive mood (mean-level group affect) has also been found to be positively related to group-level efficacy (Gibson, 2003).
A fascinating related area of enquiry has been team/group flow. Research into flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988; see also earlier in this chapter) has typically been limited to individual experiences. However, there is evidence that not only can flow be experienced at a pair or group level, and that ‘positive social interactions are particularly conducive to the flow experience’ (Aube et al., 2014: 121), but also that social experiences of flow may be even more intensely experienced (Jackson & Csikszentmihalyi, 1999; Walker, 2010). Keith Sawyer defines group flow as ‘a property of the entire group as a collective unit’ (Sawyer, 2006: 158). Even though Sawyer’s research is rooted in exploring the creativity of jazz musicians, he posits that the same may likewise apply to less overtly creative group endeavours – such as groups in education – providing that the group is united in its goal striving. In such product-oriented collaborative situations, group flow will most likely occur ‘when the degree to which the group must attain an extrinsic collective goal is matched by the number of pre-existing structures shared and used by the performers’ (Sawyer, 2003: 167). In the same way that emotional contagion functions, empirical evidence has indicated that flow can likewise be ‘contagious’ (Bakker, 2005; Bakker et al., 2011; Schiepe-Tiska & Engeser, 2012).
Although flow has typically only been investigated with regards to its prerequisites (e.g. Jackson, 1992, 1995), research has also begun to investigate the outcomes of group flow, for example relating to productivity (Aube et al., 2014), and this emerging strand of research is particularly relevant when considering these experiences in the context of education (see, for example, Salanova et al.’s 2014 study investigating collective flow and collective efficacy among work groups). A final, related line of relevant research here is that of goal contagion, describing how, in social contexts where goals are inferred by the behaviour of others, goal pursuit can also be automatically triggered (Aarts & Custers, 2012).
These literatures can also contribute to our understanding of leadership within groups. For example, in the context of team sports, Swann et al. (2012: 815) posited that it may be the case that ‘players in flow act as the leaders within the team’. In the context of education, Bakker (2005) also found that students are more likely to experience flow when their music teachers are experiencing flow. Through processes of emotional contagion group leaders can transmit their mood to other individuals in a group (Sy et al., 2005), and, by modelling appropriate affective responses to specific challenges, leaders can likewise positively influence group processes and performance. Leaders can therefore consciously utilise emotional expressiveness ‘to influence group affect and behaviour – using positive affect, for example, to foster group cohesiveness and enthusiasm and negative affect to increase motivation and signal a change in direction’ (Barsade & Gibson, 2012: 121).
The reason that group-level processes are so important in the context of this book is rooted in the fundamental acknowledgement that language learning primarily occurs with groups of language learners. Therefore, when considering the relevance of DMCs to L2 classrooms this likewise demands we adopt a group-level approach: we must explore the notion of group DMCs. (I return to explore this idea in detail in Chapter 3.)
The Emergence and the Significance of Directed Motivational Currents
Each of the topics I have introduced in this chapter is directly relevant to our understanding of DMCs: each is able to contribute to situating them within the wider field or, alternatively, has a tale to tell in the story of their emergence. It is immediately clear that DMCs fit well within the new zeitgeist characterising the socio-dynamic era of motivation research (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011) overviewed at the start of this chapter. The significance of DMCs stems from their ability to channel and align motivational impetus and energy down a single productive path, even in the midst of surrounding ‘chaos’. During a DMC, individuals’ behaviour becomes largely predictable, therefore providing a window of opportunity for systematic research (Dörnyei, Ibrahim et al., 2015). We have argued that DMCs may offer one response to addressing the research challenges that have arisen from the broad adoption of CDST perspectives.
At their heart, DMCs are inherently goal/vision oriented and can be considered as being born as a direct extension of the vision concept (Dörnyei et al., 2016; Henry, 2019). A core feature of a DMC is a clear, personally important goal or vision channelling action. In this way, we can understand DMCs as representing an optimal form of approach motivation (approach motivation being ‘the energization of behavior by, or the direction of behavior toward, positive stimuli (objects, events, possibilities)’, Elliot, 2008: 3). In the context of language learning, this goal is invariably rooted in an individual’s ideal L2 self and supported by the surrounding imagery and experiential aspects this evokes. It may even be that learners with strong ideal L2 selves are particularly predisposed to experiencing L2 DMCs (Tsunoda, 2018). I expand further in Chapter 2 upon the means by which a goal can result in such an intense motivational outcome, but the genesis of this can be found in the fact that these goals are rooted in an individual’s core sense of self (i.e. reflecting the heart of one’s self-concept). In a DMC, a goal always links to the core of who an individual feels they really are (Sheldon & Elliot, 1999; I introduce the notion of self-concordant goals in detail in the next chapter).
The experience of such positive goal striving is what underpins the acutely experienced emotional affect characteristic of all DMC experiences. Within a DMC, this is experienced ‘not only to be positive, but very positive’ (Dörnyei et al., 2016: 90): for the period of time that a DMC is ongoing, DMCs truly do allow individuals to flourish. Recent work elsewhere has highlighted the relevance of intensely experienced emotions to language learning and their potential to facilitate L2 development (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014). For example, eudaimonia (a core characteristic of the DMC experience, see Chapter 2) has been highlighted by MacIntyre and Mercer (2014) as one of several topics awaiting more detailed investigation. In this respect, too, the emergence of DMCs can be considered highly timely: they focus on an issue which had previously received relatively little attention. Rather than ‘focusing on self-regulatory strategies which help to limit the loss of momentum that occurs through encountering obstacles and difficulties during task performance’ (Dörnyei et al., 2016: 35), Dörnyei et al. continue:
DMCs concern the motivational components and conditions that can energize engagement with an ongoing project, and reflect exactly the kind of holistic coming-together of all the necessary parts which the theoretical accounts in mainstream psychology have been lacking. (Dörnyei et al., 2016: 35)
As noted earlier in this chapter, DMCs clearly share this experiential element with Csikszentmihalyi’s (1975/2000) notion of flow. We can understand the ways in which these two phenomena differ by comparing several other key characteristics of each. Firstly, flow experiences are almost always framed within the limits of individual tasks, typically not outlasting a period of several hours. As Csikszentmihalyi states: ‘To remain in flow, one must increase the complexity of the activity by developing new skills and taking on new challenges’, through a process of ‘spiralling complexity’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988: 30). A good example of this is the way in which players are kept ‘in the zone’ through effective videogame design: their increasing skill levels are matched by correspondingly more difficult levels within the game. Pleasure and enjoyment (the ‘flow experience’) are therefore derived directly from the act of completing the activity itself. (The preferred term to describe flow was initially ‘autotelic experience’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975/2000), precisely because it required ‘no goals or rewards external to itself’ (1975/2000: 47.)
By contrast, DMCs are a single stream of motivational energy that encompasses multiple, varied tasks, linked together by an overarching goal pathway and held together in a cohesive manner through the existence of a highly valued end goal/vision. It could well be the case, therefore, that some