Motivations, identities and selves in the here-and-now of learners of a foreign language
The main aim of this doctoral research was to explore the motivations of foreign language learners / users, and to offer insights into what a foreign language means to them in the here-and-now, and how they experience this. To do so, three distinct studies were carried out, in different contexts, ex...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2020 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | CBUC, CESCA |
| Repositorio: | TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/670738 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10803/670738 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Foreign language Lengua extranjera Llengua estrangera 81 |
| Sumario: | The main aim of this doctoral research was to explore the motivations of foreign language learners / users, and to offer insights into what a foreign language means to them in the here-and-now, and how they experience this. To do so, three distinct studies were carried out, in different contexts, exploring the motivations of: (i) learners of English as a foreign language in a formal instruction university classroom in Spain, and the effect on them of an imagery-intervention (Study 1); (ii) former international study abroad sojourners in Spain, who were back home and no longer at university (Study 2); and (iii) university students in Spain, who had elected to study their degree through English medium instruction (EMI) (Study 3). There were three separate data-sets, which included: (i) group-composed imagery scripts of a future ideal L2 self, collected during an Exploratory Practice (a form of practitioner research), with template analysis adopted (King, 2004) (Study 1); (ii) individual written imagery scripts of an ideal L2 self, followed by semi structured interviews, with thematic analysis adopted (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2013) (Study 2); and (iii) oral monologues on topics including motives to take an EMI degree, with the thematic analysis again adopted (Study 3). Two main theoretical lenses were chosen through which to view the data: the psychology-oriented L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) (Dörnyei, 2009) and the sociology-inspired model of investment (as expanded) (Darvin & Norton, 2015). A third construct, the person-in-context relational view of motivation (Ushioda, 2009), acted as a bridge between the L2MSS notions of the mind and the more grounded model of investment. As for the results of the first study, the findings showed that the students demonstrated L2 motivated behaviour in co-constructing a plausible, socially-recognisable future ideal L2 self, that their peers could identify with, and an emotional investment in the classroom imagery-intervention. In the second study, the meaning-making about how a foreign language is experienced post-sojourn revolved around four dominant themes: (1) ‘identity echoes’; (2) ‘a pivotal experience’; (3) ‘to sustain or not to sustain’; and (4) ‘enduring value’ (economic, sociocultural, and linguistic capital factors). Finally, in the third study, three dominant themes emerged for what the choice-to-EMI means and how this is experienced, namely: (1) ‘the right fit for me’; (2) ‘to practise my L2’, and (3) ‘English as a lingua franca (ELF) comes with benefits’ (communicative and economic). |
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