Türkiye’de İngilizceyi Yabancı Dil Olarak Öğrenenlerin Yabancı Dil Benlik Sistemlerinin Kesitsel Desenle İncelenmesi

This paper reports the findings of a research, with a twofold aim of investigating L2 motivational self system of Turkish EFL learners and exploring how the constructs of this model interact with each other. To this end, we conducted a mixed methods research with 1168 participants from three populations of Turkish EFL learners, secondary school, high school and university students. The findings show that the tripartite mode of L2 motivational self system explains the Turkish EFL learners’ language learning motivation and that the constructs of this model contribute towards the language learning motivation following different paths for the three groups of learners from secondary school, high school and university. To investigate the possible changes these constructs undergo over time, language learning motivation trajectories of individual learners were also explored. The findings show that there is a dynamic interplay among these constructs. The findings also indicate patterns and emergence of attractor states in these interactions. Finally, it is found that the attractor states themselves also undergo changes over the learners’ trajectories, shaping whilst being shaped by the components of L2 motivational self system.