Directed Motivational Currents and Language Education. Christine Muir
(2019) describe several socially rooted triggers – for example, chance meetings and comments from significant others.
A further interesting trigger that has emerged is related to exposure to appropriate role models (cf. Bandura, 1997). A role model is someone that we look up to or admire and that we would like to become more like (Muir et al., 2019; Murphey & Arao, 2001). For example, Tsunoda (2018) notes that in the Japanese context, proficient teachers appear to serve as strong role models paving the way for DMC experiences. Pietluch also reports on a learner whose DMC was triggered in the company of a highly motivated group of friends. As ‘Daniel’ describes:
At that point in my life, I found it extremely difficult to motivate myself. I had no vision whatsoever of what I wanted to do. One day, when I was visiting my friends, they told me about the trip to Argentina they had been planning for months. As this was not easily affordable, they both took extra hours at work to gather the necessary funds. Although they were obviously very tired, I was astonished by how much they enjoyed every small progress bringing them closer to their dream holidays. I found this extremely motivating and soon decided to join them in their efforts. (Pietluch, 2018: 53)
While Pietluch explains this in the context of Bandura’s (1997) notion of role modelling, referring back to the notion of goal contagion, introduced in Chapter 1, one might also wonder to what extent this may shed further light on this participant’s experience. As Aarts and Custers (2012) describe:
an appreciation of the goals motivating other people we interact with allows one to entertain similar goals and to try to attain them oneself. It promotes successful pursuit of one’s own needs, desires, and goals. Furthermore, by pursuing the goals of others, people may become more similar in what they desire and strive for, and hence in their plans for the future (Aarts, Dijksterhuis & Dik, 2008). (Aarts & Custers, 2012: 235)
The implications of this with regards to group DMCs (introduced fully in the next chapter) are certainly fascinating.
Relating this discussion to a complexity approach to understanding, introduced in the previous chapter, it is clear that the effectiveness of any trigger, on any given occasion, can only be understood with reference to the wider context and surrounding conditions. When this powerful match occurs, DMCs tend to begin both immediately and with great intensity. In the words of Hanna, whose L2 Polish DMC was triggered by a negative experience, this comprised a single comment made when she was unable to converse with a particular interlocutor: ‘after this everything changed, after this moment’ (Dörnyei et al., 2016: 9). Such a sudden and significant effect from seemingly small events is known colloquially as the butterfly effect (Gladwell, 2000) – or a phase shift in CDST terminology (see Sampson, 2016, for detailed discussion and further examples) – and such strong reactions are invariably rooted in the highly identity-relevant nature of the self-concordant goals fuelling DMCs.
Many further examples of discrete triggers can be found across the emerging DMC literature (see Safdari & Maftoon, 2017; Selҫuk & Erten, 2017; Zarrinabadi & Tavakoli, 2017 for good examples of carefully documented DMC experiences), and in Chapter 6 of this book I present a considerable body of new evidence in this regard.
Continual re-triggering: Maintaining the current
A triggering stimulus provides a key role in initiating a DMC, and a similar mechanism also plays a critical role in maintaining the current of motivation as it unfolds. To a certain extent, DMCs always remain domain specific: there will be times during which a DMC must necessarily take a back seat to the tasks and obligations of daily living. The DMC process is supported through such interruptions via the continual re-triggering of the current of energy.
We can find a theoretical account for this by returning to the bodies of literature surrounding both goal and vision theory. At any point in time we each have multiple possible selves, both L2- and non-L2-related, and it is simply not possible that all might be held concurrently in our working self-concept (Markus & Kunda, 1986; Markus & Nurius, 1986). As Markus and Nurius (1986: 957) describe: ‘The working self-concept derives from the set of self-conceptions that are presently active in thought and memory … a continually active, shifting array of available self-knowledge’ (emphasis added). The limited capacity of the working self-concept stipulates that specific self-conceptions only become active ‘when they are triggered by significant self-relevant events, or they can be tuned in by the individual in responses to an event or situation’ (Markus & Kunda, 1986: 859). Indeed, a basic tenet of the motivating power of future self-images is that they must be regularly activated and kept alive for any motivational potential to be realised (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014).
A further important piece of the puzzle is the principle of chronic accessibility (Higgins et al., 1982). Throughout a DMC, the vision of an idealised future self is not only more frequently activated, but it is activated more widely, and in situations not overtly associated with an individual’s goal. This is further explained by Markus and Kunda:
Some self-conceptions because of their importance in defining the self and their extensive elaboration, are probably constantly available for characterizing the self; they are what Higgins has called chronically accessible (Higgins et al., 1982). These conceptions reflect one’s behaviour in domains of enduring salience, investment or concern, and they have been variously labelled as core self-conceptions or as self-schemas (e.g. Markus, 1977). (Markus & Kunda, 1986: 859)
Within a DMC, the underpinning goal/vision acquires an enduring salience, becoming chronically accessible in the working self-concept. As Bargh et al. explain, chronically accessible constructs are ‘automatic perceptual biases that reflect the long-term nature of one’s social experience’ and as such become ‘default interpretive mechanisms’ (Bargh et al., 1988: 604). The authors go on to argue that while such chronic accessibility might be overridden temporarily by the demands of everyday life, ‘it is just a matter of time before one’s dispositional perceptual set will be restored to ascendancy’ (1988: 604). In the context of DMCs, this means that once a goal or vision exceeds a critical threshold of personal importance – that is, identity-congruence – it becomes an automatic regulator of behaviour, ensuring that resulting actions and the vision itself become an integral part of an individual’s life.
This continual re-triggering mechanism and chronic accessibility of a vision within a DMC is a key differentiating feature from flow. During a DMC, the chronic accessibility of the goal or vision triggers the continuation of a single current of energy across a wide range of vision-congruent actions that may only be linked by the overarching goal pathway itself. This sensitive re-triggering mechanism of a DMC means that an individual becomes highly attuned to the potential possibilities of each environment and how each might be optimally exploited. Individuals possess, therefore, a chronic capacity to block out competing possibilities for action: it is this which forms the essence of the DMC ‘hyperdrive’ (Dörnyei et al., 2016).
(3) DMC Structure
The structure of a DMC plays an active role in maintaining the motivational current (Dörnyei et al., 2016). In this section, I highlight three key areas which, when viewed concurrently, are able to offer a compelling theoretical explanation: automatised behavioural routines; subgoals and progress checks; and the important role of affirmative feedback.
Behavioural routines, motivational autopilot and nonconscious self-regulation
Clearly perceptible throughout any DMC is the existence of routines that become entrenched patterns of behaviour: for example, always and everywhere carrying L2 vocabulary flashcards, such as in Louise’s DMC experience in Ibrahim (2016b), or rising early and staying up late to study, as Tuba in Zarrinabadi and Tavakoli (2017). Throughout the time a DMC is ongoing, these tasks do not require volitional control, leading to a type of motivational autopilot. When in a DMC, individuals perform successfully without conscious awareness of the need to expend effort. This is particularly relevant when considering the changing nature of this effort as it is perceived as DMCs end. I return to discuss this further in the final