Five Tips for Promoting Reflection on Language Learning

In September we will be publishing Promoting Reflection on Language Learning edited by Neil Curry, Phoebe Lyon and Jo Mynard. In this post the editors give their five top tips for promoting reflection on language learning.

Who are we?

This book’s editors and contributing authors are experienced language educators, and the context is a small, private university in Japan specialising in foreign languages. Some of us are learning advisors who have worked in the university’s large self-access learning centre (SALC), and others are language instructors who have taught at the English Language Institute (ELI).

What motivated us to write this book?

We have been collaborating for several years on a project promoting language learner autonomy inside and outside the classroom. As part of this project, we have been developing and trialling materials that encourage reflection on language learning and conducting research to evaluate the effectiveness of the process for our learners.

What is reflection on language learning?

On page 4, we define reflection on language learning as “the process of thinking deeply about one’s language learning to understand the processes to take informed and self-regulated action towards language outcomes.”

Why is reflection important?

Throughout the book, we argue that reflection is essential to language learning. Learners who engage in regular, systematic reflection are more aware of themselves and how they best learn. They are better equipped to take charge of the learning process and sustain motivation for learning.

What can educators do to promote reflection?

Each of the chapters disseminates research and practical applications to answer this question. In the conclusions, we summarise some of the key findings from the studies. Based on this, here are our five top tips for promoting reflection:

1. Written prompts facilitate reflection.

Prompts help learners think differently, organise their thoughts and express their ideas. After a while, learners can even write their own prompts or ask each other reflective questions. Still, initially, they need the structure of prompts and reflective questions. Provide reflective questions to help learners to look back, look inwards, look forward and take action, for example:

• How did that activity go? What went well? What didn’t go so well?
• What did you learn from the activity? How did you feel as you did it?
• What would you change next time?
• What action will you take from today?

2. Reflection can be done in written form, spoken form, and using visual or technological tools.

Experiment with different forms of reflection and ask students which ones they prefer. Have students keep records (e.g. logs, diaries, charts) of what they have learned to help them become more aware of their learning progress. Visual tools can help students express themselves deeply and creatively, even if they lack the language. Use technology tools creatively to help students keep track of their learning progress, write reflections, and interact with classmates and teachers/learning advisors.

3. Students need training on why reflection is important and how to reflect.

To get started, give students some metalanguage, examples and a structure for expressing themselves and discussing their thoughts, goals and learning progress. Allocate time in class for longer (e.g. 30-minute) reflective activities to emphasise the importance of reflection and to encourage peer sharing. However, do not ‘overdo’ it. We recommend that these activities come at the end of a unit or every few weeks.

4. Reflection is not ‘one-way’ but more effective if it is part of a dialogue.

Reflective dialogue helps students to organise their thoughts and think more deeply. If possible, talk to students one-to-one about their learning. Alternatively, respond to students’ written reflections to create a dialogue. Keep an open mind, and don’t judge or correct students’ reflections. Have students discuss their reflections with their classmates. Students value sharing their reflections with peers and giving and receiving encouragement and advice. Engaging in regular dialogues helps students stay motivated, connect with their teachers and classmates, and not feel so alone when learning a language.

5. Reflection should be an integrated part of ongoing learning (i.e. not a ‘one-off’ activity).

Regularly embed short reflection questions into classroom tasks or have students keep a short reflective journal outside of class time so that it becomes a natural part of language learning. Encourage students to try to do the reflection tasks in the target language so they can express themselves while learning a language. However, do not correct any mistakes and allow students to express themselves in their L1 if they prefer. Ask students to keep their previous reflections for later discussion and comparison. Looking back at previous reflections helps learners to see how far they have come on their metacognitive journeys.

Jo Mynard, Neil Curry and Phoebe Lyon

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Teacher Reflection edited by Zia Tajeddin and Atsuko Watanabe.

What Motivates People to Learn Multiple Languages?

This month we published Motivation to Learn Multiple Languages in Japan by Chika Takahashi. In this post the author introduces the book and explains what inspired her to write it. 

I originally thought of writing this book when I was about to finish the last set of interviews with my two interviewees after nine years of data collection. I had started this motivation study in 2012, had published three papers on the earlier phases, and had unpublished data for the previous three years. What I felt was necessary at that stage was to put everything together to examine my interviewees’ long-term motivational developments to study multiple languages from a broad perspective. For that purpose, I felt that a book-length report was necessary.

We all know that it usually takes years to reach a certain level in any second/foreign language. We also know that it’s challenging to do so in more than one language, particularly when there is a strong social, political, or economic emphasis on one of the languages, in this case English. In a non-multilingual context like Japan, it may be even more challenging than in other contexts such as Europe. Yet I had these rich interview data to demonstrate that it is possible to be motivated to learn multiple languages even in a non-multilingual, exam-oriented context and to go beyond an instrumentalist view of language learning to see multiple language learning as a lifelong endeavor.

In the book, you will see that my interviewees experienced motivational ups and downs along the way, as they went from high school, to university, to graduate school, and into the working world. They had different approaches to language learning and went through distinct experiences even at the same schools, but they both showed compelling cases of persisting in learning multiple languages in their own ways. Readers may be particularly surprised that one of them ended up learning nine languages throughout the years. In an era when English functions as a global language and many learners question the necessity of learning another language when they can communicate in English, this is frankly quite amazing. I am sure that their motivational trajectories and perspectives on language offer valuable insights for our future language learning/teaching, no matter the context. I feel truly lucky to have met such wonderful learners, not only as a researcher but also as a language learner and simply as a human.

What I hope I have demonstrated through this book is that language learning is not just about gaining capital or a competitive edge in the job market. It is not something that happens only in formal education settings, either. My interviewees considered it a lifelong endeavor—an essentially human act that better connects us to other people—and showed that it can be so enjoyable and fulfilling if we have the right elements of motivation. I hope that readers both inside and outside Japan find these two cases illuminating and insightful for their learning/teaching of multiple languages in their given contexts.

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Lessons from Exceptional Language Learners Who Have Achieved Nativelike Proficiency by Zoltán Dörnyei and Katarina Mentzelopoulos.

Getting and Keeping Language Learners Engaged

This month we published Student Engagement in the Language Classroom edited by Phil Hiver, Ali H. Al-Hoorie and Sarah Mercer. In this post the editors explain how the book came about and why it’s important.

All three of us share an interest in the practicalities of getting learners engaged and keeping them engaged. As educators and researchers, we recognized for some years how this has become increasingly difficult in the face of the multitude of distractions competing for learners’ attention. In 2018, we met at the PLL3 conference in Japan. Sarah had already begun work with Zoltán Dörnyei exploring the notion of engagement in depth with a book aimed at educators concentrating on practical issues based on an underlying theoretical frame (Mercer & Dörnyei, 2020). However, all of us felt there was still a need for a greater research commitment to the construct of engagement in SLA. At PLL3, the inspiring relevant plenary by Richard Ryan sealed our resolve to bring such a collection of research papers together. Given its heritage, we are especially honored to have an introduction from Richard Ryan to preface the collection.

In our previous work, we had all seen that although learners may be motivated and want to learn, at the critical moment, their attention could be hijacked leaving them disengaged with the objectives of their learning despite their initial good intentions and motives. Clearly, motivation still has a role to play in understanding learning processes, but learner engagement seems to provide a critical link between learners’ intentions and their actions. What is the nature of engagement, how can it be fostered, and how does it connect with other key variables in language learning – these were some of the key questions driving our interest in compiling this exciting collection of papers.

To date, engagement in language learning has remained relatively unexplored apart from some notable pioneers who have conducted key studies in SLA. This book is intended to chart some of the territory of language learner engagement, pointing out the key areas that can be connected to and built upon but also new directions and avenues yet to be investigated. Engagement is a core foundation for successful learning. While motivation represents an intention to engage, engagement itself is the action state driving learning. Engagement is a complex, multifaceted construct comprised of affective, cognitive, social, and behavioural elements. It is closely interconnected with motivation but differs in its temporal and actional frame. It is a hugely important construct to comprehend, as without engagement, there will be no learning. We are excited to share this collection with you. We expect to continue to learn much more about engagement of different forms in the context of language learning and teaching in the years to come – our hope is that this collection can provide the impetus for that next wave of engagement research.

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Contemporary Language Motivation Theory edited by Ali H. Al-Hoorie and Peter D. MacIntyre.

DMC Theory and Long-Term Motivation

We recently published Directed Motivational Currents and Language Education by Christine Muir. In this post the author introduces and explains DMC theory and the lessons we can learn from it. 

It’s not always easy to stay motivated. During these unprecedented times, as we face up to the continuation and consequences of the global pandemic, it may be more important than ever to look to the future and continue working towards achieving our long-term goals. However, for many, it may also be more difficult than ever to be able to do so. In some respects, it feels like a strange time to be discussing such a uniquely positive and energising motivational construct as directed motivational currents (DMCs). A motivational experience characterised by the feeling of being wholly caught up and carried forwards by a current of motivation in a seemingly effortless process of goal pursuit. 

A little while ago I was invited to give the keynote talk at the fourth annual Languages, Texts and Society conference. In discussing the content of my talk with the organisers – LTS is both run by and organised for postgraduate and early career researchers (PGRs) – I was asked exactly this ‘million-dollar question’: perhaps, the organisers asked, you could include ‘some thoughts on fostering individual DMCs, especially in the context of PGRs trying to operate in the current climate. I appreciate it might be unfair to put you on the spot, but perhaps we can work down from that idea’. So, hardly any pressure at all…

The area of DMC theory that has continued to be the most compelling for me personally has, however, been rooted in exactly this issue: is it possible to translate the underpinning principles of DMC theory into sound pedagogic practice? Is it possible to design our instruction in such a way that students might experience this distinct type of motivational outpouring?

None of the attendees of the LTS conference were, to my knowledge, currently experiencing a DMC, yet we reflected together on lessons DMC theory might provide to help reinvigorate flagging motivational reserves. For example, we discussed the relevance of self concordant goals, goals that tap directly into the core of who we really are, and the eudaimonic wellbeing we can feel in striving to achieve them (the experience of which is a hallmark of all DMC experiences). We discussed the importance of affirmative feedback, a structural feature of DMCs key to maintaining the current of motivation over time, and so therefore of looking backwards as well as forwards to recognise how far we’ve already come in our goal striving.

DMC theory certainly cannot offer a ‘magic bullet’. Yet, the positioning of DMCs as representing a perfect form of long-term approach motivation facilitates not only the potential for pedagogic innovation via intensive group projects (one area of focus in Directed Motivational Currents and Language Education), but also a framework able to facilitate the investigation of other aspects of long-term motivation. Long-term motivation is a broad, fascinating and important area of scholarship that has, to date, received remarkably scant research attention.

The empirical findings presented in Directed Motivational Currents and Language Education, and the areas for future research foregrounded – for example links with study abroad, and the emergent evidence indicating potential lasting positive effects from DMC experiences – give strong support for the argument that this is an area of research with a significant amount to offer.

For more information about this book please see our website.

If you found this interesting, you might also like Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning edited by Zoltán Dörnyei, Peter D. MacIntyre and Alastair Henry.

New Ways of Looking at Language Learning Motivation

This month we published Contemporary Language Motivation Theory: 60 Years Since Gardner and Lambert (1959) edited by Ali H. Al-Hoorie and Peter D. MacIntyre. In this post the editors explain how the idea for the book came about.

The idea behind this book was born during the second Psychology of Language Learning conference (PLL2) in Jyväskylä, Finland. At the conference, which took place in August 2016, Ali and Peter realized that the 60th anniversary of the seminal paper by Gardner and Lambert (1959) entitled “Motivational variables in second language acquisition” (Canadian Journal of Psychology, 13, 266-272) was on the horizon. That 1959 paper was brief, only seven pages in length, but it is one of the most influential papers in applied linguistics because it helped establish motivation as a valuable subject for study, on par with aptitude.

At the PLL2 conference we were able to approach several potential authors to invite them to join this project. To our delight, we received a favorable response from everyone we spoke with, and they encouraged us to go ahead with the project. People appreciate the impact that Robert Gardner, the Father of second language motivation, has had on our field.

While still at the conference, we also approached Laura at the Multilingual Matters desk to pitch this idea. As always, she offered all necessary assistance and encouragement to speed up the process and complete the paperwork and other preparations. The project was born!

Now, as the physical copy of the book comes into our hands, the project has reached a milestone. We hope that it will inspire new ways of looking at language learning motivation in the Gardner tradition. There seems to be a resurgence of interest in all things motivational just now, so perhaps this is coming at the best possible time to inspire new research with a strong connection to well-established theory, methods, and findings. That Gardner’s contribution to all three areas has been sustained over some 60 years is a notable achievement – worth celebrating, and worth continuing.

We think it is worth carrying on the work of looking at the social psychology of motivation for language learning, and the new book suggests a number of exciting new directions for those studies to take. Maybe we will need a 70th anniversary edition as well.

 

For more information about this book please see our website. 

If you found this interesting, you might also like Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning edited by Zoltán Dörnyei, Peter D. MacIntyre and Alastair Henry.

Taking a Situated Look at the Complexity of Classroom Motivation

This month we published Richard J. Sampson’s book Complexity in Classroom Foreign Language Learning Motivation. It brings together work on motivation in language learning using complexity theory and action research. In this post, Richard discusses how the book came together.

Although motivation and self-concept have come to be recognised as key aspects of additional language learning, much work has centred on the development and validation of general theories rather than exploring practical approaches to motivation in the classroom (Lasagabaster et al., 2014). In the research presented in this book, I wanted to start from a different perspective, from the everyday reality of my work as an English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher in Japan. While many of the non-English-major adolescent students I work with seem to recognise the importance of their studies, this recognition often does not translate into engagement and motivation in the classroom. The book presents a practitioner-led journey whereby action research processes – the study deliberately introduced change-action into the classroom setting – were used for the double-edged purpose of working to foster more engaging and motivating lesson environments for my students and to gain a deeper understanding of the motivation of a language learning class group.

A variety of questions thrown up by the emergent processes of action research fostered an increasingly complex and dynamic picture of students’ desire to study in the classroom. What colours of the life experiences of an individual suddenly spur a student into life from some trigger in the classroom? How do students perceive and act on comparisons with others in the learning group? How do the future self-concepts of learners dynamically develop as they interact in the classroom? And importantly, in what ways do these perceptions and actions shape the trajectory of motivation in the whole class group? As the research progressed I found that ideas from complex systems theory offered a useful way of understanding the kind of interactions that I was uncovering to provide some (situated) answers to these questions and more. Although I realize that “complex systems theory” sounds quite daunting, I hope that combined with the multiple perspectives on the same context of action achieved via the action research, the book provides a convincing argument that classroom motivation can be more profitably conceptualised with a focus on not only individuals but also the class group as a whole.

The primary focus of the book is this application of complex systems theory to understanding the dynamic and co-forming nature of the motivation and self-concepts of additional language learning students. However, in presenting the study, I felt it important to maintain a sense that this was research conducted by someone who was also a part of the class group. Indeed, complex systems theory would urge that the observer (in this case myself as teacher/researcher/author) is very much part of that being studied. All too often the teacher/researcher is written out of representations of research. Moreover, I did not feel it methodologically or philosophically justifiable to present a tidied up, static picture of the research which placed a large emphasis on outcomes and positioned myself as an “accomplished expert”. As such, the book provides a detailed account of not only the understandings at which I arrived, but also an exposition of the processes by which these understandings evolved. Through the narrative of my experiences I hope to encourage fellow teachers to become more agentic in the development of educational theories of classroom practice and learning.

If you would like to contact me about the book, please email me at: Richard Sampson, sampson@gunma-u.ac.jp.

References:

Lasagabaster, D., Doiz, A., & Sierra, J. M. (2014). Introduction. In D. Lasagabaster, A. Doiz, & J. M. Sierra (Eds.), Motivation and foreign language learning: From theory to practice (pp. 1–5). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

For further information about the book please see our website. You might also like some of our other titles on a similar topic: Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning edited by Zoltán Dörnyei et al and Multiple Perspectives on the Self in SLA edited by Sarah Mercer and Marion Williams.

The Quest for Authenticity in Japan

This week we are publishing Richard S. Pinner’s new book Reconceptualising Authenticity for English as a Global Language which examines the idea of authenticity in English language learning. In this blog post, Richard  explains how his quest for authenticity developed.

When I came to Japan, I had no idea that I was beginning a quest for authenticity. Before moving to Japan, I worked in London. If I wanted to give my students an authentic experience of the English language in use, I just had to ask them to look out of the window. Their lives were inherently entwined with meaningful interactions in English, because they were living in an English-speaking environment. Authenticity seemed to be part of the package.

However, when I moved to Japan I realised that things are not so straightforward for the majority of English learners around the world. Creating meaningful and relevant experiences of using English became my number one challenge. I also became much more aware of the ‘soft power’ effect my cultural upbringing was now having on my students, as I selected materials which presented certain worldviews and ideologies. Things I had not previously considered became problematic issues. In London I represented the local; the one with insider knowledge, links and cultural connections. Working in Japan I was now an outsider, and I had to adapt myself just as much as the materials I was planning to use for my lessons.

My research into authenticity grew out of my research into motivation, and hence I approach the subject from a complexity theory perspective. What this means is that I now try to avoid over-simplifying or compartmentalising things, and I try to make my teaching about contextualised experiences rather than about materials. In order to do this, I have to focus on the individuals in my class and help them to find their own authentic voice in English. I also have to find a way of helping these individuals to bridge their way into a social community of English users.

Japanese learners are often written about in terms of motivation (or lack thereof) and there are many workshops held at conferences in Japan which address issues such as ‘silence’ in the classroom. The stereotype is that it can be hard to encourage Japanese learners to speak as themselves. In my own experience, I think this is an issue related to authenticity, and overcoming such obstacles is as much about the teacher changing their perspective as the students learning new skills. In the book, I try to explain the global situation of English language education as it relates to the construct of authenticity, while providing relevant examples from my own experience as a language teacher. I hope that anyone who reads it will find it interesting and empowering, because authenticity is a central component to successful second language acquisition.

For further information about this book, please see our website. You might also enjoy another recent title Authenticity, Language and Interaction in Second Language Contexts edited by Rémi A. van Compernolle and Janice McGregor.

Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning

This month marked the publication of Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning edited by Zoltán Dörnyei, Peter MacIntyre and Alastair Henry. In this post we find out how the book came together.

That Zoltán Dörnyei and Peter MacIntyre would embark on a project of putting together an anthology of papers applying dynamic principles to the investigation of motivational phenomena is perhaps not surprising. For some time both had been shifting their research interests in dynamic directions. While in his 2009 book The Psychology of Second Language Acquisition Zoltán mapped out the ways in which CDST (Complex Dynamic Systems Theory) could provide an important, game-changing approach to the study of individual differences, Peter had begun work developing pioneering methodologies that could capture moment-by-moment fluctuations in motivation. Both were also very aware that while most of the cutting-edge theorizing in SLA took it for granted that the future lay along the dynamic path, empirical research had lagged behind and continued to follow traditional, non-dynamic research approaches. Quite simply the time was right for a collection of papers investigating the dynamics of L2 motivation and drawing on CDST principles in such research.

Testing the water, Zoltán first broached the idea of a CDST-inspired motivation anthology with Tommi and Laura at the 2012 AAAL conference in Boston. Buoyed by their enthusiastic response, the ball started to roll. Shortly thereafter invitations to contribute were sent out to over 40 researchers working with L2 motivation and here too responses were overwhelmingly positive. To keep the momentum for the project growing, Zoltán and Peter organized a well-attended colloquium at the 2013 AAAL gathering in Dallas where John Schumann provided an inspiring introduction and, in her role as discussant, Diane Larsen-Freeman assessed the contributions, arguing persuasively that motivation researchers should continue the journey now started along a CDST pathway. The energy generated by the symposium was sustained at a subsequent reception hosted by Multilingual Matters at the convention center where many of the book’s contributors met to enjoy a drink (thanks Tommi and Laura!) and to discuss ways forward.

However, while Zoltán and Peter were delighted at the enthusiasm generated by the project, privately they were concerned about the scope of the undertaking and the time investment that the putting together of such a large and pioneering collection of papers would demand. Realising that, unless the editorial team was expanded, they would be locked to their desks for next eighteen months, they invited Alastair to breakfast the day following the colloquium and, in true Godfather style, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

With Alastair on board and chapter drafts beginning to arrive, the following eight months saw the team working intensively with the submissions, hardly a week going by without flurries of email correspondence. At the most crucial moments, skype meetings were held early morning (for Peter in Canada) and late afternoon (for Alastair and Zoltán in Europe). Difficult editorial decisions were discussed among the three editors over skype. Whereas the quality of the papers was uniformly high, not all could be included in the volume. Not because Multilingual Matters had any upper limit (Tommi had even promised Zoltán that the book could stretch to two volumes if necessary!), but because early on the editors realised that for the book to be a success – i.e. that it could provide a series of research blueprints that would enable graduate students and established researchers alike to embark on CDST-inspired projects – it was imperative that only those papers that truly instantiated dynamic approaches could be included. Making these decisions was by no means an easy task and several high quality papers that have now been published (or are in press) in other forums were turned down.

After another intensive period of editing, the manuscript began to take shape. In the summer of 2014 a final draft was sent to Multilingual Matters. Not only had an impressive range of empirical studies been put together (many employing novel methodologies), but the manuscript also included a series of conceptual papers dealing with CDST concepts and terminology. Contributions from leading scholars such as Diane Larsen-Freeman, Kees de Bot and Marjolijn Verspoor map out some of the fundamental principles of CDST, such as the role of attractor states, timescales, initial conditions and context. These concepts will be new and unusual to some readers of the volume, so the 10 introductory chapters were designed to provide ‘one stop shopping’ for readers entering the CDST field.

The empirical section of the book features a dozen highly original empirical studies. Motivation-related concepts that are familiar to teachers and researchers alike are dealt with from a dynamic perspective. These concepts are studied with a series of innovative and creative methodological approaches that provide richly detailed information about motivational processes. Although there are a number of ground-breaking ideas that emerge from these empirical investigations, the fact that so many types of studies are possible surely bodes well for the future of the dynamic turn in SLA. The empirical studies included in the volume demonstrate how to do research under a CDST umbrella.

The book (which, much to the relief of MM remained a single volume!) is not just the product of the dedication and hard work on the part of the contributors. It is also a statement of intent. As one of the contributors put it, “once a researcher understands the complexity worldview, in a sense there is a transformation in thinking. Everything you observe and experience from then on – whether it involves personal relationships, parenting concerns, events unfolding in contemporary society, to say nothing of SL classroom phenomena – is nothing if not complex and dynamic”. The social world around us is dynamic and, even though CDST inspired research is more challenging (empirically and conceptually), once such a transformation in thinking has taken place, turning back it isn’t always that easy.

When Zoltán, Peter and Alastair set out on this project they set themselves a challenge; they could either initiate a robust research project that took well-established motivation constructs and, by applying dynamic principles to their investigation, produce convincing empirical evidence for the sustainability of the approach, or they would need to come to terms with the fact that the dynamic approach in SLA might be an attractive but ultimately unrealisable idea. The production of this volume has served as this testing ground. If nothing else, the research collected here is a sign that some researchers have found the CDS approach both ‘cool’ enough to explore in a research project and ‘hot’ enough to inspire new ideas.

Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning is now published – more information is available on our website. You might also be interested in Zoltán and Peter’s other books: Motivation, Language Identity and the L2 Self and Capitalizing on Language Learners’ Individuality.

 

The Impact of Self-Concept on Language Learning

We recently published The Impact of Self-Concept on Language Learning edited by Kata Csizér and Michael Magid. Here, they give us a bit of background on their innovative volume.

Despite the fact that there is an abundance of self-related research studies nowadays, we think that our book managed to carve out a unique niche in the field of Applied Linguistics for a number of reasons. Firstly, we provide an up-to-date and easy-to-follow theorerical background to self-related investigations. Secondly, we contribute to the discussion by publishing original empirical studies on self-related topics concerning both students and teachers. Thirdly, we have included the results of several intervention studies that looked into the classroom and investigated in what ways students can be motivated to learn by developing their selves. Last but not least, we also provide insight into how the self-concept may be researched in the future by outlining the most promising avenues.

As the editors of this book, we were inspired to create a volume on the impact of self-concept on language learning by Professor Zoltán Dörnyei. This volume deals with the following major themes: 1. Second language learning motivation and its relation to vison and mental imagery. 2. The relationship of one’s self and one’s network. 3. The impact of self on self-regulation and autonomy. 4. Age-related differences in self. 5. The development of students’ identities in various contexts including Europe, Canada, Asia and Australia. 6. The dynamically changing motivation of teachers. 7. The strengthening of students’ ideal self and motivation through different intervention programmes.

We sincerely believe that our collection of chapters clarifies the meaning of various self-constructs in order to highlight how the self-constructs may be researched. It also specifically focuses on research that illustrates the effects of self-concept on language learning including the practical applications of the research findings in order to motivate language learners.

If you would like more information about this book please see our website. You might also be interested in our recently published title Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning edited by Zoltán Dörnyei et al.

Motivation, Self and SLA

Our SLA series brings together titles dealing with a variety of aspects of language acquisition and in situations where a language or languages other than the native language is involved. It is an inclusive series that embraces books written from a range of theoretical stances and perspectives and accordingly recent titles have ranged from Measuring L2 Proficiency to Discontinuity in Second Language Acquisition and Studies in Second Language Acquisition of Chinese.

That said, for the Multilingual Matters SLA series, this year has seen a bit of a boom in the areas of motivation and the self.  You may have read our blog posts about Laura’s trips to Nottingham for the International Conference on Motivational Dynamics and Second Language Acquisition in August and to the Psychology and Language Learning Conference in Graz earlier in the year.

Alongside these conferences, the publications in our SLA series on these topics are really flourishing.  We started the year with the publication of Multiple Perspectives on the Self in SLA (edited by Sarah Mercer and Marion Williams) and recently followed it up with The Impact of Self-Concept on Language Learning (edited by Kata Csizér and Michael Magid). We are soon to follow these two collections up with the exciting addition of Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning edited by Zoltán Dörnyei, Peter D. MacIntyre and Alastair Henry to the series.  And of course, I shouldn’t forget to mention our numerous previous publications on this subject area (Gregersen and MacIntyre (2014), Apple et al (2013), Taylor (2013)…) which are all well worth discovering.