Ema Ushioda

Language Motivation in a Reconfigured Europe: Access, Identity, Autonomy

In this paper, I propose that we need to develop an appropriate set of conceptual tools for examining motivational issues pertaining to linguistic diversity, mobility and social integration in a rapidly changing and expanding Europe. I begin by drawing on research that has begun to reframe the concept of integrative motivation in the context of theories of self and identity. Expanding the notion of identity, I discuss the contribution of the Council of Europes European Language Portfolio in promoting a view of motivation as the development of a plurilingual European identity and the enabling of access and mobility across a multilingual Europe. Next, I critically examine the assumption that the individual pursuit of a plurilingual identity is unproblematic, by highlighting the social context in which motivation and identity are constructed and embedded. To illuminate the role of this social context, I explore three inter-related theoretical frameworks: poststructuralist perspectives on language motivation as ‘investment’; sociocultural theory; and theories of autonomy in language education. I conclude with the key message that, as with autonomy, language motivation today has an inescapably political dimension of which we need to take greater account in our research and pedagogical practice.

Language learning motivation, self and identity: current theoretical perspectives

Recently, the impact of globalization and the dominant status of English have provoked critical discussion in the L2 motivation field. Traditional concepts such as integrative motivation lose their explanatory power when English is becoming a ‘must-have’ basic educational skill and when there is no clearly defined target language community. In this article, I will examine how L2 motivation is currently being reconceptualized in the context of contemporary theories of self and identity – that is, peoples sense of who they are, how they relate to the social world and what they want to become in the future. As I will discuss, this theoretical shift in focus to the internal domain of self and identity has important implications for how we as language teachers engage the motivation, interests and identities of our students; and for why we should exploit their world of digital technologies, social networking and online communication to this end.

Why autonomy? Insights from motivation theory and research

Abstract This paper reviews contemporary developments in motivation theory and research, and discusses how they are relevant to our understanding of language learner autonomy. Within the fields of mainstream psychology and applied linguistics, theoretical perspectives on motivation are currently undergoing considerable change and transformation. In particular, there has been a noticeable shift away from individual-cognitive perspectives (e.g. motivational beliefs, goals, attributions) towards dynamic perspectives on motivation emergent through the complex interactions of internal, social and contextual processes. In educational psychology, there is also now recognition that motivation is not necessarily achievement-oriented but value-based and identity-oriented, as reflected in a rapidly growing literature on motivation and identity. These theoretical perspectives are now influencing current thinking in the language motivation field. As I will argue, in highlighting processes of social interaction and participation and the construction of personally valued identities, such perspectives contribute to bringing issues of motivation and autonomy into very close interaction at the level of theoretical analysis, and further reinforce the argument for why we should seek to promote the autonomy of our students.

Tandem language learning via e-mail: from motivation to autonomy

This paper examines the affective dimension of tandem language learning via e-mail. It begins by highlighting some of the obstacles to this mode of learning, including organisational and pedagogical issues as well as the particular issues confronting learners. Drawing on a small body of empirical data, it explores the interactions between these issues and what learners perceive to be intrinsically motivating about tandem learning. It concludes by suggesting that affective learning experience has a potentially powerful role to play in fostering the development of learner autonomy through the reciprocity on which successful tandem learning is founded.

Motivation: L2 Learning as a Special Case?

Among the psychological constructs implicated in L2 learning, none has perhaps generated as much literature as motivation. As a field of inquiry, the study of L2 motivation has a rich history dating back some 50 years to early work on individual differences in language learning. As Ellis (2008, p. xix) notes, this work pre-dates the establishment of mainstream second language acquisition (SLA) research in the 1960s. Motivation is widely recognized as a variable of importance in the L2 learning process, and possibly one of the key factors that distinguishes first language acquisition from SLA. Put simply, while motivation is not really an issue in the case of infants acquiring their mother tongue, being motivated or not can make all the difference to how willingly and successfully people learn other languages later in life (Ushioda, 2010, p. 5). Yet we might qualify this observation by noting that motivation is similarly critical to all forms of conscious and intentional human learning, and that it has been a major pedagogical and research issue across the field of education. In this respect, we might ask whether L2 learning represents a special case in the psychology of learning motivation, giving rise to distinctive motivation theories and concepts specific to this domain of learning; or whether L2 motivation can broadly be explained in terms of general theories of learning motivation.

Designing, implementing and evaluating a project in tandem language learning via e-mail

Tandem language learning is based on a partnership between two people, each of whom is learning the others language. Successful tandem partnerships observe the principle of reciprocity (“tandem learners support one another equally’) and the principle of learner autonomy (“tandem partners are responsible for their own learning”) (Little and Brammerts 1996: 1 Off.). This paper begins by exploring some of the theoretical implications of tandem language learning in general and tandem language learning via e-mail in particular. It then reports on the pilot phase of an e-mail tandem project involving Irish university students learning German and German university students learning English.

Motivation and ELT: Looking Ahead to the Future

At a 2012 conference in Austria hosted by the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) Learner Autonomy Special Interest Group, I presented a paper in which I drew together emergent issues and insights from the draft chapters of this volume and explored their resonance with English language teachers and educators working in various European contexts (Ushioda, 2012a). According to the European Commission (2006), English is the most widely used lingua franca across the countries of the European Union, and dominates foreign language curricula in mainstream education in Europe (Eurydice, 2005). Yet, as several contributors to this volume have highlighted, the unquestioned importance ascribed to English in global, national and educational policy terms does not simply translate into unquestioned positive motivation for learners of English, and this dissonance presents significant challenges for teachers at a local level.

Motivation and ELT: Global Issues and Local Concerns

Motivation is widely recognised as a significant factor influencing success in second or foreign language (L2) learning, and is perhaps one of the key variables that distinguishes first language acquisition from second language acquisition. After all, while motivation is not really an issue in the case of infants acquiring their mother tongues, being motivated (or not) can make all the difference to how willingly and successfully people learn other languages later in life (Ushioda, 2010: 5). The study of language learning motivation has a long history, dating back to the early pioneering work of Gardner and Lambert (1959) in Canada, and has generated a large body of literature. On the whole, this literature has been driven by the pursuit of explanatory theoretical models of motivation and their empirical exploration in a variety of formal and informal learning contexts. This is reflected in the current push towards new analyses of L2 motivation in terms of concepts of self and identity and of complexity theory (see, for example, the collections of conceptual and empirical papers in Dornyei & Ushioda, 2009; Murray, Gao & Lamb, 2011). Since the 1990s, it is true to say that the research literature has increasingly concerned itself with motivation issues and practices of relevance to teachers, leading to the development of pedagogical recommendations in areas such as motivational strategies (Dornyei, 2001), group dynamics (Dornyei & Murphey, 2003), or teachers’ communicative style (Noels et al., 1999).

Responding to Resistance

This chapter is a story of resistance to autonomy and our responses to that resistance. It begins in early February 2004, when we received an anonymous letter from ‘A student’ on the core ‘Professional Practice’ module that we co-teach for pre-experience English teachers taking our MA in English Language Studies and Methods (ELSM). The contents of the letter were distinctly worrying. Had we been blind in thinking that our students were eager participants in our version of ‘pedagogy for autonomy’, when all the time it seemed that ‘at least more than half’ were dissatisfied with the module? Had we misread the signals? Surely the student feedback to date had generally been positive? But no, the anonymous letter told us we could have little faith in this feedback: I am not sure about what feedback you had from all different student, but I strongly believe that not everybody is honest on that issue, as we don’t want to offend against any of you. However, what is sad is even though students have complaints, they just accept the fact and do not try to talk to tutors about their real feeling.

Language learning motivation through a small lens: A research agenda

In this paper I propose an agenda for researching language learning motivation ‘through a small lens’, to counteract our tendency in the L2 motivation field to engage with language learning and teaching processes at a rather general level. I argue that by adopting a more sharply focused or contextualized angle of inquiry, we may be able to understand better how motivation connects with specific aspects of SLA or particular features of linguistic development. Keeping the empirical focus narrow may also lead to interesting and illuminating analyses of motivation in relation to particular classroom events or to evolving situated interactions among teachers and learners. I propose a number of possible research tasks that might be undertaken by experienced researchers, teacher-researchers or student-researchers wishing to investigate language learning motivation ‘through a small lens’.