Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations in Language Learning: Advances in Theory, Research, and Applications
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available at www.blackwell-synergy.com. Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations in Language Learning: Advances in Theory, Research, and Applications Zoltan Drnvei Universitv of Nottingham This article intends to achieve two purposes: (a) to provide an overview oI recent advances in research on motivation to learn a Ioreign or second language (L2), and (b) to create the theoretical context oI the articles selected Ior this anthology. The past Iew years have seen a number oI comprehensive summaries oI relevant research (e.g., Clement & Gardner, 2001; Drnyei, 2001a, 2001c; Maclntyre, 2002), and the chapters in this volume also oIIer theoretical overviews. ThereIore, rather than reiterating what has been well described beIore, I will Iocus on the "big picture" in this review by placing the various themes and directions in a broader Iramework, highlighting their signiIicance, and identiIying their links to other topics and approaches. The Inherent Social Dimension oI Language Learning Motivation The Iirst important point to emphasize when starting to explore the Iield oI L2 motivation is not new at all, yet I believe it is important to restate that learning an L2 is diIIerent in many Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Zoltan Drnyei, School oI English Studies, University oI Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom. Internet: zoltan. Drnyeinottingham. ac.uk Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations ways Irom learning other school subjects. While an L2 is a "learnable" school subject in that discrete elements oI the communication code (e.g., grammatical rules and lexical items) can be taught explicitly, it is also socially and culturally bound, which makes language learning a deeply social event that requires the incorporation oI a wide range oI elements oI the L2 culture (cI. Gardner, 1979; Williams, 1994). This view has been broadly endorsed by L2 researchers, resulting in the inclusion oI a prominent social dimension in most comprehensive constructs oI L2 motivation, related to issues such as multicul-turalism, language globalization, language contact, and power relations between diIIerent ethnolinguistic groups. The signiIicance oI this social dimension also explains why the study oI L2 motivation was originally initiated by social psychologists. I will start our tour oI the Iield by describing their inIluential approach. As a preliminary, I would like to note, however, that the social dimension does not constitute the complete picture, and, depending on the actual context in which L2 learning takes place, to achieve a Iuller understanding oI the motivational tapestry underlying second language acquisition (SLA), a range oI other motivational aspects needs also to be considered. Gardner's Motivation Theory and the Concept oI "Integrativeness" It is no accident that L2 motivation research was initiated in Canada and that it was dominated by a social psychological emphasis there. The understanding oI the unique Canadian situation with the coexistence oI the anglophone and Iranco- phone communities speaking two oI the world's most vital languages has been an ongoing challenge Ior researchers in the social sciences, and the Canadian government has actively promoted (and sponsored!) research in this vein. Accordingly, in the Iirst comprehensive summary oI L2 motivation research, Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert (1972) viewed L2s as mediating Iactors between diIIerent ethnolinguistic communities in multicultural settings. They considered the motivation to learn the language oI the other community to be a primary Iorce responsible Ior enhancing or hindering intercultural com- munication and aIIiliation. The most developed and researched Iacet oI Gardner's (1985) motivation theory has been the integrative aspect. The signiIicance oI this concept is attested to by its appearing in Gardner's theory in three diIIerent Iormsintegrative orientation, integrativeness, and the integrative motiveand Gardner has also emphasized this dimension in his writings (e.g., Gardner, 2001). Yet in spite oI the importance attached to it, the notion has remained an enigma: It has no obvious parallels in any areas oI mainstream motivational psychology, and its exact nature is diIIicult to deIine, which explains Gardner's (2001, p. 1) conclusion that the "term is used Irequently in the literature, though close inspection will reveal that it has slightly diIIerent meanings to many diIIerent individuals." Still, an "integrative" component has consistently emerged in empirical studies even in the most diverse contexts, explaining a signiIicant portion oI the variance in language learners' motivational disposition and motivated learning behavior. (For a meta-analysis oI some important aspects oI Gardner and his colleagues' empirical studies, see Masgoret & Gardner, 2003, in this volume.) So what does an integrative disposition involve? In broad terms, an "integrative" motivational orientation concerns a positive interpersonal/aIIective disposition toward the L2 group and the desire to interact with and even become similar to valued members oI that community. It implies an openness to, and respect Ior, other cultural groups and ways oI liIe; in the extreme, it might involve complete identiIication with the community (and possibly even withdrawal Irom one's original group). Thus, a core aspect oI the integrative disposition is some sort oI a psychological and emotional identification. According to Gardner (2001), this identiIication concerns the L2 community (i.e., identiIying with the speakers oI the target language), but Drnyei (1990) argued that in the absence oI a 4 Drnvei Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations salient L2 group in the learners' environment (as is oIten the case in Ioreign language learning contexts in which the L2 is primarily learned as a school subject), the identiIication can be generalized to the cultural and intellectual values associated with the language, as well as to the actual L2 itselI. This is why we can detect a powerIul integrative motive among, Ior example, Chinese learners oI English in mainland China who may not have met a single native speaker oI English in their lives, let alone been to any English-speaking country. Recently, Db'rnyei and Csizer (2002) have contended that the actual term integrativeness may not do justice to the overall and indisputable importance oI the concept, as this Iactor also appears in situations that are very diIIerent Irom that in Canada in that there is no real or potential "integration" involved (e.g., the Chinese learners oI English mentioned above). It might be more Iorward- looking to assume that the motivation dimension captured by the term is not so much related to any actual, or metaphorical, integration into an L2 community as, in accordance with Gardner's original conceptualization, to some more basic identification process within the individual's self-concept. This process may be closely related to an important line oI research in social psychology that highlights possible and ideal selves (e.g., Higgins, 1987; Markus & Nurius, 1986). As Markus and Nurius deIine them, "possible selves represent individuals' ideas oI what they might become, what they would like to become, and what they are aIraid oI becoming, and thus provide a conceptual link between cognition and motivation" (p. 954). One oI the most important possible selves has been identiIied as the "ideal selI," representing the attributes that a person would like to possess (e.g., hopes, aspirations, desires), and within this Iramework "integrativeness" can be seen as the L2-related attributes oI the ideal selI. Based on this speculation, Drnyei and Csizer (2002) concluded: Although Iurther research is needed to justiIy any alternative interpretation, we believe that rather than viewing 'integrativeness' as a classic and thereIore 'untouchable' concept, scholars need to seek potential new conceptualizations and interpretations that extend or elaborate on the meaning oI the term without contradicting the large body oI relevant empirical data accumulated during the past Iour decades, (p. 456) Alternative Theoretical Approaches The Ioundations oI Gardner's theory were laid down in the 1960s and were grounded in social psychology. However, during the subsequent decades, as a consequence oI the cognitive revolution that took place in psychological research, several inIluential cognitive motivation theories were proposed in main- stream psychology, and it wasn't long beIore L2 motivation researchers started to utilize these Ior a better understanding oI L2 motivation. In the Iollowing, I will brieIly outline three such inIluential cognitive approaches: self-determination theorv, attribution theorv, and goal theories. During the 1990s, psychology started to show signs oI yet another major paradigm shiIt: Cognitive psychology became increasingly augmented with neurobiological research, resulting in a broader Iield that is oIten reIerred to as cognitive neuro- science. Language issues have had a prominent place in this new psychological paradigm, and thereIore the application by John Schumann oI neuroresearch to the study oI SLA and, more speciIically, to L2 motivation has been an important research development. Schumann's theory will thereIore be presented as the Iourth alternative approach. Motivational Orientations and Self-Determination Theorv Deci and Ryan's (1985, 2002) self-determination theorv has been one oI the most inIluential approaches in motivational psychology, and during the past 4 years Kim Noels has been championing the application oI this theory to L2 motivational issues (Noels, 2001a; 2001b; Noels, Clement, & Pelletier, 1999, 2001; Noels, Pelletier, Clement, & Vallerand, 2000). This has 6 Drnvei Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations been a principled and systematic eIIort, reIlected in Noels's coauthors being Luc Pelletier and Robert Vallerand, two oI the best-known international scholars specializing in selI-determi- nation theory (Noels etal., 2000, reprinted in this volume). The main terms associated with selI-determination theory, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, have been Irequently used in the L2 Iield beIore, without speciIying their relationship with established L2 concepts, such as integrative and instrumental orientation. The research oI Noels and her colleagues has provided insights into how these concepts Iit into the L2 Iield, as well as a valid and reliable measuring instrument assessing the various components oI selI-determination theory in L2 learning. Besides the Noels etal. (2000) study mentioned above, the current anthology contains a second study by Noels (200 Ib, reprinted in this volume) that applies selI-determination theory to the examination oI the relationship oI student autonomy and the language teacher's communicative style. This article has special signiIicance in that it addresses an area, student autonomv, that has been a popular topic in L2 research during the past decade (Ior a review, see Benson, 2001), and the relationship between learner autonomy and L2 motivation has also been recognized by several scholars (e.g., Spratt, Humphreys, & Chan, 2002; Ushioda, 1996, 2001). L2 Motivation and Attribution Theorv Attribution theorv achieved a unique status among contem- porary motivation theories as the Iirst theory that successIully challenged Atkinson's classic achievement motivation theory (Ior a review, see Drnyei, 2001a). Subsequently it became the dominant model in research on student motivation in the 1980s. It is also unique because it manages to link people's past experiences with their Iuture achievement eIIorts by introducing causal attributions as the mediating link: As the main proponent oI the theory, Bernard Weiner (1992), has argued, the subjective reasons to which we attribute our past successes and Iailures considerably shape our motivational disposition. II, Ior example, we ascribe past Iailure on a particular task to low ability on our part, the chances are that we will not try the activity ever again, whereas iI we believe that the problem lay in the insuIIicient eIIort or unsuitable learning strategies that we employed, we are more likely to give it another try. Because oI the generally high Irequency oI language learning Iailure worldwide, attributional processes are assumed to play an important motivational role in language studies, as conIirmed by recent qualitative research by Marion Williams and Bob Burden (1999; Williams, Burden, & Al-Baharna, 2001). This is clearly an important line oI investigation with much Iurther scope. Goal Theories Goals have always been a central Ieature oI L2 motivation research (see, Ior example, Belmechri & Hummel, 1998; Clement & Kruidenier, 1983; McClelland, 2000), although their inIluence may have been veiled by the Iact that language learning "goals" have been typically reIerred to as "orientations." Yet until Tremblay and Gardner's (1995) study, orientation studies had not been explicitly linked to various goal theories that had become popular in the psychological literature. In their proposed motivation construct, Tremblay and Gardner introduced the concept oI "goal salience" as a central component, conceptualized as a composite oI the specificitv oI the learner's goals and the frequencv oI goal- setting strategies used. While the recognition oI the relevance oI goal-setting theory is deIinitely a welcome development, it needs to be noted that there have hardly been any attempts in L2 studies to adopt the other well-known goal theory in educational psychology, goal- orientation theorv, even though, as Pintrich and Schunk (2002, p. 242) have recently concluded, "Currently, it is probably the most active area oI research on student motivation in classrooms and it has direct implications Ior students and teachers." 9 Drnvei Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations The Neurobiologv of L2 Motivation In the 1990s, John Schumann (Ior reviews, see Schumann, 1998, 1999) introduced a novel line oI research into L2 studies neurobiological investigations oI the brain mechanisms involved in SLAthat has the potential to "revolutionarize" the Iield. As he has argued (Schumann, 200 la), recent technological developments in brain scanning and neuroimaging have made the brain increasingly amenable to direct psychological investigation. This means that the various mental processes that have been by and large unobservable in the past might receive direct empirical validation in neurobiological studies. What is particularly important Irom our perspective is that the Iirst area oI SLA that Schumann has examined Irom a neurobiological point oI view has been L2 motivation, and the result oI this examination has been an intriguing motivation theory. The key constituent oI Schumann's theory is stimulus appraisal, which occurs in the brain along Iive dimensions: noveltv (degree oI unexpectedness/Iamiliarity), pleasantness (attractiveness), goal /need significance (whether the stimulus is instrumental in satisIying needs or achieving goals), coping potential (whether the individual expects to be able to cope with the event), and self- and social image (whether the event is compatible with social norms and the individual's selI-concept). As Schumann has demonstrated, stimulus appraisals become part oI the person's overall value system through a special "memory Ior value" module, and thus they are largely responsible Ior providing the aIIective Ioundation oI human action. Recently Schumann (2001b) has broadened his theory by outlining a conception oI learning as a Iorm oI mental foraging (i.e., Ioraging Ior knowledge), which engages the same neural systems as the ones used by organisms when Ioraging to Ieed or mate and which is generated by an incentive motive and potentiated by the stimulus appraisal system. A More Situated Conception oI L2 Motivation By emphasizing the sociocultural dimension oI L2 motiva- tion, Gardner's (1985) approach oIIered a macro perspective that allowed researchers to characterize and compare the motivational pattern oI whole learning communities and then to draw inIerences about intercultural communication and aIIiliation. As argued earlier, this approach is appropriate Ior examining a wide range oI important sociocultural issues, such as multicul-turalism, language globalization, language contact, and power relations among diIIerent ethnolinguistic groups. However, the macro perspective is less adequate Ior providing a Iine-tuned analysis oI instructed SLA, which takes place primarily in language classrooms. This recognition led a new generation oI (mainly non-Canadian) motivation researchers in the 1990s to start expanding the Canadian paradigm so that it could accommodate a variety oI educational issues. Much has been written about the "educational shiIt" and the subsequent "motivational renaissance" (Gardner & Tremblay, 1994) that took place in the 1990s (Ior a review, see Drnyei, 2001b), so let me only reiterate here the common theme underlying the publications written in this vein. The key assumption that energized this boom in research was that the classroom environ- mentand, more generally, the contextual surroundings oI action had a much stronger motivational inIluence than had been proposed beIore. Researchers thereIore started to examine the motivational impact oI the various aspects oI the learning context, Ior example, course-specific motivational components (e.g., relevance oI the teaching materials, interest in the tasks, appropriateness oI the teaching method), teacher-specific motivational components (e.g., the motivational impact oI the teacher's personality, behavior, and teaching style/practice), and group-specific motivational components (e.g., various characteristics oI the learner group such as cohesiveness, goal-orientedness, and group norms). While the educational implications oI the motivation research conducted in the past decade have clearly been Drnvei 11 10 Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations important, this work has also been signiIicant Irom a purely theoretical point oI view in that it introduced a situated approach characterized by a micro perspective, in contrast to the macro perspective oI the social psychological approach. In a thought- provoking paper on the links between individual and social inIluences on learning, McGroarty (2001) explained that this "contextualization" oI L2 motivation did not happen in isolation but coincided with a parallel situated shiIt in psychology that highlighted the role oI the social context in any learning activity. The situated approach appears to be a particularly IruitIul direction Ior Iuture L2 motivation research, and to illustrate this I will describe below three recent research directions that have adopted this perspective: the study oI (a) the willingness to communicate (WTC), (b) task motivation, and (c) the relationship between motivation and the use oI language learning strategies. Willingness to Communicate A recent extension oI motivation research that has consid- erable theoretical and practical potential involves the study oI the L2 speakers' willingness to engage in the act oI L2 commu- nication. As Maclntyre, Baker, Clement, and Donovan (2002, reprinted in this volume) explain, individuals display consistent tendencies in their predisposition toward or away Irom commu- nicating, given the choice. In one's Iirst language, WTC is a Iairly stable personality trait, developed over the years, but the situation is more complex with regard to L2 use, because here the level oI one's L2 proIiciency, and particularly that oI the individual's L2 communicative competence, is an additional powerIul modiIying variable. What is important, though, is that WTC and communicative competence are not the same: There are many L2 learners who are very competent L2 speakers yet tend to avoid L2 communication situations, whereas some other, less proIicient learners actively seek opportunities to engage in L2 talk. Thus, Maclntyre, Clement, Drnyei, and Noels (1998) have argued that there is a need to examine WTC in the L2, deIining the concept as the individual's "readiness to enter into discourse at a particular time with a speciIic person or persons, using a L2" (p. 547). The notion oI WTC is situated in many ways at the inter- section oI motivation and communicative competence research. The construct comprises several layers and subsumes a range oI linguistic and psychological variables, including linguistic selI- conIidence (both state and trait); the desire to aIIiliate with a person; interpersonal motivation; intergroup attitudes, motiva- tion, and climate; parameters oI the social situation; communi- cative competence and experience; and various personality traits (see Figure 1). Thus, the WTC model attempts to draw together a host oI learner variables that have been well established as
12 Drnvei 13 Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations inIluences on second language acquisition and use, resulting in a construct in which psychological and linguistic Iactors are inte- grated in an organic manner. Because oI its situated nature, the WTC construct lends itselI to being used to examine speciIic learning contents. Baker and Maclntyre (2000, reprinted in this volume), Ior example, have applied it to compare the nonlinguistic outcomes oI an immersion and a nonimmersion program in Canada, and Yashima (2002) has successIully used the WTC model to investigate the relations between L2 learning and L2 communication variables among Japanese learners oI English. WTC has also been integrated as a predictor variable in research studies Iocusing on the motivational basis oI L2 learners' communicative perIormance, accounting Ior a signiIicant proportion oI the variance (Drnyei, 2002; Db'rnyei & Kormos, 2000). Task Motivation Interest in the motivational basis oI language learning tasks can be seen as the culmination oI the situated approach in L2 motivation research. SLA researchers have been attracted to tasks because by Iocusing on them, they are able to break down the complex and prolonged L2 learning process into discrete segments with well-deIined boundaries, thereby creating researchable behavioral units. Thus, Irom this perspective, tasks constitute the basic building blocks oI classroom learning, and accordingly, L2 motivation can hardly be examined in a more situated manner than within a task-based Iramework (Drnyei, 2002). In addition, recognizing the signiIicance oI tasks in shaping learners' interest and enthusiasm coincides with practicing classroom teachers' perceptions that the quality oI the activities used in language classes and the way these activities are presented and administered make an enormous diIIerence in students' attitudes toward learning; thereIore, the study oI task motivation is Iully in line with the "educational shiIt." Tasks were Iirst highlighted in the L2 motivation literature by Kyb'sti Julkunen (1989), and in a recent theoretical discussion oI task motivation, Julkunen (2001) has revisited this issue and contended that students' task behavior is Iueled by a combination oI generalized and situation-speciIic motives according to the speciIic task characteristics. This conception is in accordance with Tremblay, Goldberg, and Gardner's (1995) distinction between state and trait motivation, the Iormer involving stable and enduring dispositions, the latter transitory and temporary responses or conditions. While I agree that it is useIul to distin- guish between more generalized and more situation-speciIic aspects oI L2 motivation, I suspect that the picture is even more complex than the state/trait dichotomy. Rather than conceiving task motivation as the sum oI various sources oI motivational inIluences (which the state/trait distinction suggests), I would propose a more dynamic task processing svstem to describe how task motivation is negotiated and Iinalized in the learner. This system consists oI three interrelated mechanisms: task execution, appraisal, and action control (see Figure 2). Task execution reIers to the learner's engagement in task- supportive learning behaviors, Iollowing the action plan that was either provided by the teacher (via the task instructions) or drawn up by the student or the task team. Appraisal reIers to the learner's continuous processing oI the multitude oI stimuli coming Irom the environment and oI the progress made toward the action outcome, comparing actual perIormances
Drnvei 15 14 Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations with predicted ones or with ones that alternative action sequences would oIIer. This importance attached to the appraisal process coincides with Schumann's (1998) emphasis on "stimulus appraisal" (discussed above). Finally, action control processes denote selI-regulatory mechanisms that are called into Iorce in order to enhance, scaIIold, or protect learning-speciIic action. Thus, task processing can be seen as the interplay oI the three mechanisms: While learners are engaged in executing a task, they continuously appraise the process, and when the ongoing monitoring reveals that progress is slowing, halting, or backsliding, they activate the action control system to "save" or enhance the action. Task-based research is an active area in SLA (e.g., Bygate, Skehan, & Swain, 2001; Skehan, in press), and the study oI task motivation complements ongoing research eIIorts in an organic manner. The concept is also useIul in pulling together diverse approaches within the L2 motivation Iield (e.g., even Schumann's neurobiological approach), and iI I add the undisputed educa- tional potential oI this line oI investigation, I may conclude that the study oI task motivation is certainly one oI the most IruitIul directions Ior Iuture research. Motivation and Learning Strategv Use Learning strategies are techniques that students apply oI their own Iree will to enhance the eIIectiveness oI their learning. In this sense, strategy useby deIinitionconstitutes instances oI motivated learning behavior (cI. Cohen, 1998; Cohen & Drnyei, 2002). The systematic study oI the interrelationship between L2 motivation and language learning strategy use was initiated in the mid-1990s by Richard Schmidt, Peter Maclntyre, and their colleagues (e.g., Maclntyre & Noels, 1996; Schmidt, Boraie, & Kassabgy, 1996). Building on the results oI these early studies, Schmidt and Watanabe (2001) have recently Iurther investigated the topic by obtaining data Irom over 2,000 university students in Hawaii. The main drive behind this research eIIort is similar to the one underlying the task-based direction, namely, to link lear- ners' motivational disposition with their actual learning beha- viors. As part oI a bigger study, Williams, Burden, and Lanvers (2002) have recently examined British schoolchildren's strategy use and concluded that "most participants appeared to have great diIIiculty in discussing diIIerent aspects oI their metacognitive strategy use and conveyed a lack oI sense oI control over their learning.... Very little evidence was Iound oI planning behavior" (p. 519). This summary Iits perIectly with the proposed approach to the study oI task motivation discussed above. However, a word oI caution about the investigation oI motivation and strategies is that strategy research Iaces serious theoretical diIIiculties surrounding the speciIic deIinition oI the concept oI "learning strategies" (cI. Skehan & Drnyei, in press) and their measurement (cI. Drnyei, 2003). In Iact, during the past decade educational psychology has moved toward aban- doning the term "learning strategy" altogether, and learners' strategic contribution to their own learning has increasingly been discussed under the label oI self-regulatorv learning instead. A Process-Oriented Approach to L2 Motivation Research The situated approach to motivation research soon drew attention to another, rather neglected aspect oI motivation: its dvnamic character and temporal variation. The Iormer was already indicated above when discussing task motivation, but so Iar we have not touched upon the time element in motivation. When motivation is examined in relation to speciIic learner behaviors and classroom processes, the lack oI stability oI the construct becomes obvious: Learners tend to demonstrate a Iluctuating level oI commitment even within a single lesson, and the variation in their motivation over a longer period (e.g., a whole academic term) can be dramatic. In order to capture this variation, we need to adopt a process-oriented approach that can account Ior the "ups and downs" oI motivation, that is, the Drnvei 16 17 18 Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations ongoing changes oI motivation over time. This is an area that I have been interested in over the past 5 years (Drnyei, 2000, 2001a; Drnyei & Otto, 1998), and I have now come to believe that many oI the controversies and disagreements in L2 motivation research go back to an insuIIicient temporal awareness. For example, as shown below, it is an established premise in the process-oriented paradigm that motivation shows diIIerent characteristics depending on what stage the individual has reached in pursuing a goal. This would, however, mean that diIIerentor even contradictingtheories do not necessarily exclude one another but may simply be related to diIIerent phases oI the motivated behavioral process. 1
As with all other motivational issues addressed in this overview article, I can only summarize the central tenets oI the process-oriented approach. In developing these tenets, I have drawn on the inspiring work oI German psychologists Heinz Heckhausen and Julius Kuhl (e.g., Heckhausen, 1991; Heckhausen & Kuhl, 1985; Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994) and have also beneIited Irom the valuable insights oI a Hungarian Iriend and colleague, Istvan Otto (Drnyei & Otto, 1998). To summarize the essence oI the approach in one (long) sentence, a process model oI L2 motivation breaks down the overall motivational process into several discrete temporal segments organized along the progression that describes how initial wishes and desires are Iirst transIormed into goals and then into operation-alized intentions, and how these intentions are enacted, leading (hopeIully) to the accomplishment oI the goal and concluded by the Iinal evaluation oI the process. In this process, at least three distinct phases can be discerned (see Figure 3, Ior more details): 1. Preactional stage. First, motivation needs to be gener- ated. The motivational dimension related to this initial phase can be reIerred to as choice motivation, because the generated motivation leads to the selection oI the goal or task that the individual will pursue. 20 Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations 2. Actional stage. Second, the generated motivation needs to be actively maintained and protected while the particular action lasts. This motivational dimension has been reIerred to as executive motivation, and it is particularly relevant to sustained activities such as studying an L2 and to learning in classroom settings, where students are exposed to a great number oI distracting inIluences, such as oII-task thoughts, irrelevant comments Irom others, anxiety about the tasks, or physical conditions that make it diIIicult to complete the task. 3. Postactional stage. Finally, there is a third phase Iollowing the completion oI the actiontermed motivational retrospectionwhich concerns the learners' retrospective evaluation oI how things went. The way students process their past experiences in this retrospective phase will determine the kind oI activities they will be motivated to pursue in the Iuture. It is worth reiterating that a key tenet oI the approach is that these three phases are associated with largely diIIerent motives. That is, people will be inIluenced, while they are still contemplating an action, by Iactors diIIerent Irom those that inIluence them once they have embarked on the activity. And similarly, when they look back at what they have achieved and evaluate it, again a new set oI motivational components will become relevant. A recent study by Maclntyre, MacMaster, and Baker (2001) has provided empirical conIirmation oI the salience oI the process aspect oI L2 motivation. The researchers employed Iactor analysis to examine the overlap among a long list (23 scales) oI motivational components and Iound that the scales could be adequately summarized by a three-Iactor solution. The Iirst two Iactors, labeled attitudinal motivation and self-confidence, were related to established aspects oI L2 motivation. However, the third Iactor, labeled action motivation, was largely associated with Kuhl's process-oriented action control approach, and the Iact that it has emerged as an independent Iactor indicates the unique nature oI the process orientation. L2 Motivation Research Versus SLA Research The Canadian social psychological approach energized the Iield oI L2 motivation research Ior over 2 decades, and it generated a substantial amount oI empirical research both in and outside Canada, making the study oI L2 motivation one oI the most developed areas within the study oI SLA. Yet in spite oI this research vigor, we Iind that motivation research Iailed to develop any enduring links with other research traditions in SLA, resulting in an almost total lack oI integration into the traditional domain oI applied linguistics. For example, the most extensive survey oI SLA research to date, Ellis (1994), devoted Iewer than 10 pages out oI nearly 700 to discussing motivational issues, even though the author acknowledges that motivation is a "key Iactor in L2 learning" (p. 508). What is the reason Ior this puzzling isolation? One obvious cause may be the diIIerent scholarly backgrounds oI the researchers working in the two areas. L2 motivation research had been initiated and spearheaded by social psvchologists interested in L2s, whereas the scholars pursuing the mainstream directions oI SLA research have been predominantly linguists by training. I suspect, however, that this is only part oI the answer, and that motivation research itselI is also "responsible" to some extent Ior the lack oI integration. The crux oI the problem is that SLA research, naturally, Iocuses on the development oI language knowledge and skills and thereIore analyzes various language processes Irom a micro per- spective, which is incompatible with the macro perspective adopted by traditional motivation research. II we are interested in inter- language development, learning about the attitudinal orientations oI ethnolinguistic communities is rather unhelpIul, and similarly, iI we are interested in the social processes underlying inter- cultural communication and aIIiliation, the developmental order Drnvei 21 Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations oI various morphological Ieatures oI the L2, to give only one example, might seem completely irrelevant. That is, the diIIerent research perspectives have prevented any real communication between the two "camps." The situated approach in L2 motivation research that emerged during the 1990s did create some common ground with mainstream SLA by relating motivation research to speciIic learning environments, but it did not result in a real breakthrough: L2 motivation research by and large maintained a product-oriented Iocus whereby researchers examined the rela- tionship between learner characteristics and learning outcome measures, and this approach remained irreconcilable with the inherent process-orientedness oI SLA. Recently, however, the prospects Ior some real integration have signiIicantly improved Ior at least two reasons. First, there has been a changing climate in applied linguistics that has been characterized by an increasing openness to the inclusion oI psy- chological Iactors and processes in research paradigms, and indeed, several psychological theories have recently acquired "mainstream" status in SLA research (e.g., Richard Schmidt's |1995| "noticing hypothesis" or Peter Skehan's |1998| work on cognitive processing). Second, the process-oriented approach to motivation research has created a research perspective that is similar to the general approach oI SLA research, and scholars coming Irom the two traditions can now look at their targets through the same lenses. This potential interIace still does not automatically guarantee integration. For real integration to take place, L2 motivation research needs to meet a Iinal criterion, namely, that it should Iocus on speciIic language behaviors rather than general learning outcomes as the criterion measure. To put this in concrete terms, instead oI looking, Ior instance, at how learners' various motivational attributes correlate with language proIiciency measures in an L2 course (which would be a typical traditional design), researchers need to look at how motivational Ieatures aIIect learners' various learning behaviors during a course, such as their increased WTC in the L2, their engagement in learning tasks, or their use oI learning strategies. Thus, relating various motivational characteristics to actual learning processes makes it possible to link L2 motivation research more closely to a range oI SLA issues, as is well illustrated by Markee's (2001) groundbreaking study, in which he related conversation-analytical moves in interlanguage discourse to underlying motivational themes. Educational Implications Research on L2 motivation that is grounded in concrete classroom situations and Iocuses on actual learning processes has considerable educational potential, particularly in two areas: (a) the systematic development oI motivational strategies that can be applied to generate and maintain motivation in learners, and (b) the Iormulation oI self-motivating strategies that enable L2 learners themselves to take personal control oI the aIIective conditions and experiences that shape their subjective involvement in learning. Devising Motivational Strategies The growing awareness oI motivational issues in language classrooms has highlighted the need to translate research results into practical terms: Language instructors are less interested in what motivation is than in how they can motivate their students. In a recent summary oI the available practical knowledge on motivating language learners (Drnyei, 200 Ib), I have provided a comprehensive Iramework oI a motivational teaching practice consisting oI Iour main dimensions (Figure 4): 1. Creating the basic motivational conditions 2. Generating initial student motivation 3. Maintaining and protecting motivation 4. Encouraging positive retrospective selI-evaluation 22 Drnvei 23 Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations
Figure 4. Components oI motivational teaching practice in the L2 classroom. From Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom (p. 29), by Z. Drnyei, 2001, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Copyright 2001 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission. These motivational Iacets, which are a logical extension oI the process model outlined in Figure 3, are Iurther broken down into concrete motivational strategies and techniques, covering a wide range oI areas Irom "making the teaching materials relevant to the learners" through "setting speciIic learner goals" to "increasing learner satisIaction" (see Figure 4 Ior details). Formulating Action Control /Self-Motivating Strategies Besides providing a comprehensive Iramework to guide practical work on devising motivational strategies, a process- oriented approach has a Iurther, somewhat related Ieature that makes it beneIicial Ior promoting eIIective selI-regulated learning: its emphasis on action control mechanisms. These mechanisms, as conceptualized originally by Kuhl (1985), can be seen as a subclass oI self-regulatorv strategies concerning learners' self- motivating Iunction (Ior a review oI selI-regulation, see Boekaerts, Pintrich, & Zeidner, 2000). Based on Corno (1993), Corno and KanIer (1993), and Kuhl (1987), selI-motivating strategies can be divided into Iive main classes (Drnyei, 2001b): 1. Commitment control strategies Ior helping to preserve or increase learners' original goal commitment (e.g., keeping in mind Iavorable expectations or positive incentives and rewards; Iocusing on what would happen iI the original intention Iailed) 2. Metacognitiue control strategies Ior monitoring and controlling concentration and Ior curtailing unnecessary procrastination (e.g., identiIying recurring distractions and developing deIensive routines; Iocusing on the Iirst steps to take) 3. Satiation control strategies Ior eliminating boredom and adding extra attraction or interest to the task (e.g., adding a twist to the task; using one's Iantasy to liven up the task) 4. Emotion control strategies Ior managing disruptive emotional states or moods and Ior generating emotions that will be conducive to implementing one's intentions (e.g., selI-encouragement; using relaxation and meditation techniques) 5. Environmental control strategies Ior eliminating negative environmental inIluences and exploiting positive envi- ronmental inIluences by making the environment an ally in Drnvei 25 24 26 Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations the pursuit oI a diIIicult goal (e.g., eliminating distractions; asking Iriends to help one not to allow oneselI to do something) Teacher Motivation and How to Motivate Teachers Finally, an increased awareness oI classroom realities has drawn attention to an overlooked motivational area, the motiva- tional characteristics of the language teacher. There is no doubt that teacher motivation is an important Iactor in understanding the aIIective basis oI instructed SLA, since the teacher's motivation has signiIicant bearings on students' motivational disposition and, more generally, on their learning achievement. The amount oI L2 research on this issue is meager, and, quite surprisingly, teacher motivation is also a relatively uncharted area in educational psychology. This, oI course, makes the topic an attractive research area, particularly iI one considers the vast practical implications oI such a line oI investigation. The Iounda- tions have already been laid (cI. Drnyei, 200 la; Doyle & Kim, 1999; Jacques, 2001; Kassabgy, Boraie, & Schmidt, 2001; Pennington, 1992, 1995; Pennington & Ho, 1995), but the details still need to be worked out; Ior example, there have been no attempts in the Iield to compile a list oI "ways to motivate language teachers," even though a scientiIically validated list oI this sort would predictably be very useIul and much sought aIter. Conclusion As this review has demonstrated, there is a lot oI inter- esting work going on in L2 motivation research. The articles selected Ior this volume present some oI the most stimulating recent data-based investigations, and these studies, accompanied by some other lines oI ongoing research reviewed in this article, will hopeIully take L2 motivation research to a new level oI maturity. I anticipate that the next decade will bring about a consolidation oI the wide range oI new themes and theoretical orientations that have emerged in the past 10-15 years, and that the oIten speculative theorizing will be grounded in solid research Iindings, Irom both quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. I also look Iorward to the time when the existing gap between linguistic and psychological approaches to the study oI SLA has disappeared and the two research traditions can coexist in a complementary and integrative manner. Notes 1 In Iact, as a reviewer oI the manuscript Ior this article has pointed out, contradiction oI this sort is a hallmark oI motivation itselI, with its inherently competing approach and avoidance tendencies. That is, diIIerent motivational systems are associated with increases in eIIort that are due to the desire to achieve a goal/reward and to avoid some Iailure/punishment. ReIerences Baker, S. C., & Maclntyre, P. D. (2000). The role oI gender and immersion in communication and second language orientations. Language Learning, 50, 311-341. Belmechri, F., & Hummel, K. (1998). Orientations and motivation in the acquisition oI English as a second language among high school students in Quebec City. Language Learning, 48, 219-244. Benson, P. (2001). Teaching and researching. Autonomv in language learning. Harlow, England: Longman. Boekaerts, M., Pintrich, P. M., & Zeidner, M. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of self-regulation. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Bygate, M., Skehan, O., & Swain, M. 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(Cambridge Language Education) Jack C. Richards, Thomas S. C. Farrell - Professional Development For Language Teachers - Strategies For Teacher Learning (2005, Cambridge University Press)