Zoltán Dörnyei

Ten commandments for motivating language learners: results of an empirical study

The question of how to motivate language learners has been a neglected area in L2 motivation research, and even the few available analyses lack an adequate research base. This article presents the results of an empirical survey aimed at obtaining classroom data on motivational strategies. Two hundred Hungarian teachers of English from various language teaching institutions were asked how important they considered a selection of 51 strategies and how frequently they used them in their teaching practice. Based on their responses we have compiled a concise set of ten motivational macrostrategies, which we have called the ‘Ten commandments for motivating language learners’. On the basis of the frequency data, we also discuss which of the commandments tend to be particularly underutilized in the language classroom.

Communication Strategies in a Second Language: Definitions and Taxonomies

This paper examines trends in second language (L2) communication strategy (CS) research to date. We give a comprehensive review of the relevant literature from the last two decades, with particular consideration of the different ways in which CSs have been defined and of corresponding influences on the organization of strategy taxonomies. We first outline the history of CS research and discuss problem-orientedness and consciousness as defining criteria for CSs. We then offer a comprehensive list of strategic language devices and describe the major CS taxonomies, noting key trends, with special attention to current and future research orientations.

New Themes and Approaches in Second Language Motivation Research.

The study of L2 motivation has reached an exciting turning point in the 1990s, with a variety of new models and approaches proposed in the literature, resulting in what Gardner and Tremblay (1994) have called a ‘motivational renaissance.’ In this chapter I provide an overview of some of the current themes and research directions that I find particularly novel or forward-looking. The summary is divided into three sections: theoretical advances, new approaches in research methodology, and emerging new motivational themes. I argue that the initial research inspiration and standard-setting empirical work on L2 motivation originating from Canada has borne fruit by ‘educating’ a new generation of international scholars who, together with the pioneers of the field, have applied their expertise in diverse contexts and in creative ways, thereby creating a colorful mixture of approaches comparable to the multi-faceted arena of mainstream motivational psychology.

The role of individual and social variables in oral task performance

This paper reports on a data-based study in which we explored - as part of a larger-scale British-Hungarian research project - the effects of a number of affective and social variables on foreign language (L2) learners’ engagement in oral argumentative tasks. The assumption underlying the investigation was that students’ verbal behaviour in oral task situations is partly determined by a number of non-linguistic and non-cognitive factors whose examination may constitute a potentially fruitful extension of existing task-based research paradigms. The independent variables in the study included various aspects of L2 motivation and several factors characterizing the learner groups the participating students were members of (such as group cohesiveness and intermember relations), as well as the learners’ L2 proficiency and ‘willingness to communicate’ in their L1. The dependent variables involved objective measures of the students’ language output in two oral argumentative tasks (one in the learners’ L1, the other in their L2): the quantity of speech and the number of turns produced by the speakers. The results provide insights into the interrelationship of the multiple variables determining the learners’ task engagement, and suggest a multi-level construct whereby some independent variables only come into force when certain conditions have been met.

The Use of Motivational Strategies in Language Instruction: The Case of EFL Teaching in Taiwan

With motivation being one of the key factors determining success in foreign/second language (L2) learning, strategies in motivating learners should be seen as an important aspect of the study of L2 motivation. However, empirical investigations focusing on motivational strategies are scarce in L2 research, with one exception being Dörnyei and Csizérs (1998) study carried out in Hungary. The large-scale empirical survey reported in this paper is a modified replication of the Dörnyei and Csizér study: 387 Taiwanese teachers of English were asked to rate a list of comprehensive motivational strategies in terms of (1) how much importance they attached to these and (2) how often they implemented them in their teaching practice. The results indicate that the list of motivational macrostrategies that emerged in this study bears a certain amount of resemblance to the list generated by Dörnyei and Csizérs survey amongst Hungarian English teachers, which provides reassurance that at least some motivational strategies are transferable across diverse cultural and ethnolinguistic contexts. However, there are also dissimilarities between the Taiwanese and the Hungarian findings, indicating that some strategies are culture-sensitive or even culture-dependent.

Direct Approaches in L2 Instruction: A Turning Point in Communicative Language Teaching?

The TESOL Quarterly invites commentary on current trends or practices in the TESOL profession. It also welcomes responses to rebuttals to any articles or remarks published here in The Forum or elsewhere in the Quarterly.

The Effects of Intercultural Contact and Tourism on Language Attitudes and Language Learning Motivation

This article investigates attitude-mediated contact effects on language learners’ motivational disposition by addressing the question as to whether increased intercultural contact through tourism will lead to enhanced language attitudes and language learning motivation. The analysis is based on empirical data gathered in a repeated cross-sectional survey of 8,593 13- and 14-year-old Hungarian pupils in a national sample, stratified according to regions and dwelling types whose contact parameters were specified through objective census data and expert panel judgments. The results reveal a curvilinear contact-attitude relationship, with the highest contact group/locality being associated with some of the lowest attitudinal and motivational measures.

Researching complex dynamic systems: ‘Retrodictive qualitative modelling’ in the language classroom

While approaching second language acquisition from a complex dynamic systems perspective makes a lot of intuitive sense, it is difficult for a number of reasons to operationalise such a dynamic approach in research terms. For example, the most common research paradigms in the social sciences tend to examine variables in relative isolation rather than as part of a system or network, and most established quantitative data analytical procedures (e.g. correlation analysis or structural equation modelling) are based on linear rather than nonlinear relationships. In this paper I will first summarise some of the main challenges of dynamic systems research in general and then present a concrete research template that can be applied to investigate instructed second language acquisition. This approach involves a special type of qualitative system modelling – ‘retrodictive qualitative modelling’ – that reverses the usual research direction by starting at the end – the system outcomes – and then tracing back to see why certain components of the system ended up with one outcome option and not another. By way of illustration I will provide examples from two classroom-oriented research projects in which the language classroom was taken to be the dynamic system, and the system outcome options were the various learner prototypes (e.g. motivated, laid back, passive) observed in the classroom.

Creating a Motivating Classroom Environment

This chapter addresses the complex question of what makes a classroom environment motivating. It will be argued that in order to understand the psychological tapestry of classroom life, we need to adopt an interdisciplinary approach and draw on research findings from a number of different areas within the social sciences, such as group dynamics, motivational psychology, educational studies, and second language research. The assumption underlying this chapter is that the motivating character of the learning context can be enhanced through conscious intervention by the language teacher, and accordingly the main facets of the environment will be discussed with such a proactive and practical objective in mind. Key concepts to be addressed include group cohesiveness and interpersonal relations, group norms and student roles, the teacher’s leadership styles, and the process of facilitation, as well as the main phases of a proactive, motivational teaching practice within a process-oriented framework.

Group dynamics and foreign language teaching

Abstract This paper highlights the importance of the dynamics of the learner group in shaping the L2 learning process. We argue that group characteristics and group processes significantly contribute to any success or failure in the L2 classroom, and therefore language teachers could potentially benefit from an awareness of the principles of group dynamics. First, we provide an overview of the aspects of classroom dynamics that we consider most relevant to L2 teaching. Then, based on the theoretical insights and our own teaching experience, we make practical suggestions for teachers on how to exploit the principles of group dynamics in their classrooms to good effect.