Directed Motivational Currents and Language Education. Christine Muir
a DMC who is training for a marathon does not decide every morning to get up and go for a run. Instead, this simply becomes a part of who they are throughout this time: no debate or decision is needed. Actions and focus across all areas of an individual’s life align so as to work together to best achieve this outcome and – a final hallmark of a DMC – this is all directed towards the achievement of a personally highly valued goal. The motivational drive wrapped up in DMCs facilitates intense goal striving and extended periods of deep engagement towards a clearly defined outcome. As we have previously described them, DMCs represent ‘the optimal form of engagement with an extended project’ (Dörnyei et al., 2016: 33).
Since DMCs came to the fore, empirical investigation has primarily sought to assess the validity of key cornerstones of the framework, including its goal/vision directedness, facilitative structure, and intensely experienced positive affect. This has been highly valuable in shoring up and refining our understanding of DMCs, but has left key research questions unexplored. Foremost among them is the broader relevance of DMCs (are DMCs only experienced by the lucky few whom we have had the pleasure of speaking with throughout these years?) and their relevance with regards to L2 pedagogy (might there be a way in which we can apply this theoretical knowledge to our pedagogy, in order to facilitate such experiences becoming a practical reality for learners in L2 classrooms?). The answers to both these questions are foundational to furthering the DMC research agenda. In this book, I explore the results of two international research studies, the focus of which was aimed directly towards the investigation of both these novel avenues of inquiry.
Overview and How to Read this Book
This book is split into four parts. In Part 1, I situate the research that I go on to present within the field of SLA more widely. I begin in Chapter 1 by highlighting key developments in the field of L2 motivation research in recent years, using this to the trace the path to the emergence of DMCs. In Chapter 2, I offer a full overview of the theoretical underpinning of the DMC framework, before going on in Chapter 3 (the final chapter in Part 1) to root discussion in the potential educational applications of DMCs. Here, I introduce and explore both group DMCs and intensive group projects (‘with DMC potential’). I conclude Part 1 with a short summary, bringing together this opening narrative and setting the scene for what is to follow.
In Parts 2 and 3 I present the findings of two empirical studies, each exploring one of the two key research questions identified above: Part 2 is more rooted in theory (exploring the broader relevance of the DMC framework), and Part 3 in practice (exploring implications with regards to L2 pedagogy and motivation). The first chapters of each part (Chapters 4 and 7) detail the methodologies of each study, before the following two chapters explore key findings and results (Chapters 5 and 6, and Chapters 8 and 9). I conclude Parts 2 and 3 by again offering concise interim summaries. In so doing, while this book can certainly be read from beginning to end, by bookending each Part in this way, I hope also to aid readers dipping in and out at those points most relevant to them or of greatest interest.
I conclude the book with Part 4. After a brief introduction, in the single chapter here – Chapter 10 – I draw together findings and conclusions from the book as a whole. I return again to consider the ‘seven frameworks for focused interventions’ (the seven project templates we introduced in Dörnyei et al., 2016), and conclude by highlighting what I believe to be the most fruitful avenues for future research. The book concludes with a short Afterword, in which I both offer further practical advice with regards to running educational projects and direct readers towards additional practical resources freely available elsewhere.
A Personal Note
The writing of this book has been both a challenge and a privilege. Throughout much of this book, I discuss the possibilities that collaboration can afford. Even though this book is sole authored it, too, would simply not have come into being without the colleagues with whom I have collaborated, the mentorship I have received and those friends and family who have acted as ever patient sounding boards and ‘silent partners’. I owe them all a huge debt of personal and professional gratitude. While I cannot claim to have experienced a DMC throughout the writing of this book – I wish to begin writing as honestly as I intend to go on! – the past years have doubtless been punctuated with remarkable motivational experiences, reminiscent of the very essence of directed motivational currents. I hope that the ideas I present in these pages will be able to play their own modest part in furthering our collective understanding of DMCs – of long-term, individual and group-level motivational currents – and of our ability to facilitate such experiences for language learners in classrooms worldwide.
Notes
(1) http://www.forbesindia.com/article/innovation-nation/for-these-wonder-kids-the-sky-is-not-the-limit/50043/1.
(2) This TEDx talk is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7Oir4reI4E.
(3) http://spacekidzindia.com/index.html.
(4) Cubes in Space: http://www.cubesinspace.com/index.html.
(5) www.cancer.org.au: known by slightly different names worldwide, it is comparable, for example, to the UK’s Cancer Research: www.cancerresearchuk.org.
Part 1: Introducing DMCs and Intensive Group Projects
Part 1 both sets the scene and lays the groundwork for the research and findings that I go on to present throughout this book. I begin in Chapter 1 by situating DMCs within the wider context of L2 motivation and second language acquisition (SLA) research. The field of SLA has adopted several significant new perspectives since the turn of the 21st century, each contributing its own account in the overall story tracing the path towards the emergence of DMCs. Rather than offering a detailed narrative of the development of L2 motivation research as a whole, in Chapter 1 I focus on a curated selection of key areas of inquiry. These specific areas of interest are included because they are most relevant both to understanding and situating DMCs in a wider context, and also to the empirical studies I introduce in Parts 2 and 3 of this book. I overview the adoption of a complexity perspective and the reframing of our understanding of L2 motivation in terms of the self, before briefly reviewing key findings related to language learner self-concept, emotions and several areas of group-level investigation. I conclude Chapter 1 by tracing the emergence of DMCs and by underlining their wider significance.
Although summaries and descriptions of DMCs can be found elsewhere (for a recent, concise summary see Henry, 2019), this book would not be complete without offering its own. Chapter 2 presents a full overview of the DMC framework, highlighting all key elements of DMCs, including their goal-orientedness, launch, structure, positive emotionality and the way in which they come to an end. In Chapter 3, I continue this discussion further, simultaneously rooting the narrative in the context of language teaching and learning. In doing so, this demands that the focus of discussion be broadened to include the notion of group DMCs. Group DMCs are of disproportionate importance in the context of language learning, owing to the simple fact that instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) primarily takes place with groups of learners. In classroom contexts, we have argued that DMCs can best be understood as emerging through intensive group projects (IGPs) (Dörnyei et al., 2016). After more thoroughly introducing ‘projects’ and exploring their alignment with other pedagogical approaches, I overview key differences between individual and group DMCs and highlight essential principles with regards to designing intensive group projects (significantly, intensive group projects ‘with DMC potential’).
In the Part 1 summary that follows, I bring these ideas together and explore key areas in which future research is required – in order to develop both our theoretical and pedagogical understanding of DMCs. In doing so,