The L2 Motivational Self System: Using the Selves in the Classroom

Abstract

Motivation for second language (L2) learning has been a topic of interest for researchers in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) for over seven decades. Research on this topic was pioneered by researchers in the multilingual context of Canada, where interest in the target language community and culture were determining factors in one’s decision and motivation to learn the other language. For instance, if Anglophones were interested in the French-Canadians’ community and culture they were more motivated to learn French. If the interest to learn about the French-Canadian culture and community was so intense that the individual wanted to even adopt and blend in with the French-Canadian culture, the individual was assumed to have what was called an integrative orientation toward learning French (e.g., Gardner & Lambert, 1972). This integrative orientation was found to result in highest levels of motivation to learn the target language. In addition to desire to integrate, learners also had another orientation toward learning a second language that included utilitarian goals such as getting a job, passing a course, traveling, and the like. These two orientations, integrative vs. instrumental, were traditionally assumed to encompass language learning goals and motives. However, in the early 1990s and after three decades of the hegemony of Gardner’s theory of motivation, many CHAPTER 9