Directed Motivational Currents and Language Education. Christine Muir
and the L2 learning experience (including the teacher, the textbook, the classroom environment and so on). Much has been written about the L2MSS since its introduction to the field. It has been validated and explored in diverse contexts (for example, Hungary: Csizér & Kormos, 2009; Saudi Arabia: Al-Shehri, 2009; and across Asia and areas of the Middle East: Matthew et al., 2017; Papi, 2010; Ryan, 2009; Taguchi et al., 2009) and from secondary school students to adults, including investigation of change over time (Hsieh, 2009; Kim, 2009; Kormos & Csizér, 2008; Lamb, 2012; Ryan & Dörnyei, 2013; Zhan & Wan, 2016).
The L2MSS has further been investigated from qualitative perspectives (e.g. Aubrey & Nowlan, 2013; Irie & Brewster, 2013; Lamb, 2007, 2009, 2011; Taguchi, 2013), related to languages other than L2 English (e.g. German: Busse, 2013; Csizér & Lukács, 2010; although it should be noted that the vast majority of L2MSS research has been with L2 English, see Thompson & Vásquez, 2015); to the simultaneous study of multiple languages (Dörnyei & Chan, 2013; Huang et al., 2015); and with regards to teacher selves (Hiver, 2013; Kubanyiova, 2009, 2012). Of the two self-based elements of the framework, research interest has tended to focus on the ideal L2 self. The ideal L2 self has largely been demonstrated to be of greater relevance than the ought to L2 self, which has sometimes lacked explanatory power (the following offer several recently proposed developments and reconceptualisations in this regard: Lanvers, 2016; Papi et al., 2018; Teimouri, 2017; Thompson & Vásquez, 2015).
Vision is argued to be an indispensable element in the motivating power of possible selves. This is because it is not only a cognitive goal that is evoked, but also ‘the sensory experience of a future goal state’ (Dörnyei & Chan, 2013: 454). Such sensory experiences of the future are largely generated through the same neural mechanisms as if we were to experience the event in reality (e.g. Moulton & Kosslyn, 2009; Reisberg & Heuer, 2005). Indeed, the brain can have difficulty in distinguishing an event that is occurring in reality from a detailed vision of the same event (Cox, 2012). Significantly, it is this ‘experiential element that makes possible selves “larger” than any combinations of goal-related constructs’ (Dörnyei, 2009b: 15). I return to explore further this motivational potential later in the chapter, in considering the relationship between vision/imagination and language learner emotions.
What is common across all these strands of research is that focus is not on the day-to-day motivation of students but, instead, on the exhibition of long-term motivated behaviour. Csizér and Lukács (2010: 9) describe the ideal L2 self not only as a ‘crucial component to long term success in language learning’, but also more generally as ‘an indispensable part of motivated learning’. The zoning in of attention on vision was motivated by a search for higher-order factors which could explain the sustained periods of motivation that are required for remaining committed to long-term learning processes, such as language learning (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014). Indeed, Dörnyei and Kubanyiova (2014: 4) have even argued that over the long term, a strong L2 vision may be ‘one of the most reliable predictors’ of learners’ intended effort. Possible selves and vision are central to DMCs, and we have positioned DMCs as a direct extension of the vision concept (Dörnyei et al., 2016; see also Henry, 2019).
Language Learner Self-concept
A fascination with the self has long been a predilection of psychologists, and it is therefore unsurprising that it ‘headlines more psychological variables than any other concept’ (Higgins, 1996: 1062). As is clear from the previous sections, a considerable body of work in recent years by applied linguists, too, has centred on learner-internal constructs related to self and identity (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009; Mercer, 2011a) and many of these shared roots can be traced back to the introduction of the L2MSS (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009b). As Markus and Nurius (1986: 954) state in their seminal paper, possible selves ‘provide the essential link between the self-concept and motivation’.
In educational research outside SLA, ‘the idea that students’ self-beliefs play a central role in their academic success is so widely accepted that self-constructs are a regular staple in studies of academic motivation’ (Pajares & Schunk, 2005: 95). In highlighting the plurality of these self-constructs, however, Pajares and Schunk also pinpoint a major cause of concern. The field of SLA already has several self-based constructs in regular use, including, for example, self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) and L2 linguistic self-confidence (Clément, 1980), and the adoption of another into the field has rightly been met with caution (MacIntyre et al., 2009). Yet, as Mercer describes, the self-concept represents:
a more widely encompassing set of self-beliefs, it subsumes the more tightly domain-specific constructs, such as self-efficacy and L2 linguistic self-confidence, and also forms the psychological basis underpinning the diverse range of identities learners want and feel able to adopt. (Mercer, 2011a: 3; see also Mercer, 2011b)
In the context of SLA, the self-concept has been defined as ‘an individual’s self-descriptions of competence and evaluative feelings about themselves as a FL [foreign language] learner’ (Mercer, 2011a: 14). In 2011, Mercer noted her surprise at the scarcity of ‘in-depth, focused studies examining the nature and development of learners’ self-beliefs specifically in the domain of Foreign Language Learning (FLL)’ (2011b: 335). In the years since, the body of related research has steadily expanded (cf. Csizér & Magid, 2014; Henry, 2009, 2014, 2015; Hsieh, 2009; Mercer, 2011a, 2011b; Walker, 2015), comprising investigation of both domain specific, cognitive and affective dimensions of the self-concept, self-concept change over time, and the relationships between global and local aspects of the self-concept. For example, in one study investigating the motivations of dyslexic and non-dyslexic Hungarian students, Kormos and Csizér found that students’ L2 self-concept played ‘an important role in influencing motivated behaviour’ (Kormos & Csizér, 2010: 247). The authors highlighted the particular importance of L2 self-concept in understanding and supporting dyslexic students’ motivation, and of teachers’ influential capacity in this regard.
Understanding a learner’s self-concept is a key element contributing to the initial conditions (see the first section of this chapter) that a learner will bring with them into the classroom (see also Falout and colleagues’ related work on the antecedent conditions of the learner rooted in, for example, Gorham & Millette’s, 1997, research exploring antecedent conditions, a conglomeration of learner-internalpsychological factors with self-concept included among them: Carpenter et al., 2009; Falout & Maruyama, 2004; Falout et al., 2009). Understanding who learners are as people, holistically and respecting all elements of their lived experience, is critical to understanding their motivation and consequent exhibition of motivated behaviours in L2 classrooms. It is this which is the foundation of Ushioda’s person-in-context-relational-view of motivation (Ushioda, 2009) and it is the self-concept that likewise forms the basis of the stories that we tell about ourselves. Newly emerging approaches with respect to narrative identity provide a fascinating vehicle to investigate these issues, offering an intriguing and potentially highly fruitful avenue for further research (cf. McAdams, 2018; McAdams & Pals, 2006).
The success or failure of any motivational intervention will inescapably relate back to its alignment with learners’ self-concepts, and understanding various aspects of a learners’ self-concept is likely to be particularly important in the context of understanding and exploring long-term motivation. Mercer (2019: 8) has recently argued that ‘in order to enhance active engagement on task, educators can also work at promoting a positive, healthy self-concept as a key antecedent for engagement’. While some elements of the self-concept are more open to fluctuation and change – possible selves are ‘the first elements of the self-concept to absorb and reveal such change’ (Markus & Nurius, 1986: 956) – they nevertheless comprise ‘relatively stable dimensions to self-beliefs’ (Mercer, 2011b: 343). These notions of self are particularly important in the context of DMCs. (I return in Chapter 2 to extend this discussion further by highlighting the importance of self-concordant goals; cf. Sheldon & Elliot, 1999.)
Language Learner Emotions
Research into language learner emotions is certainly not a new area of study. Research into anxiety, for example,