The ideal multilingual self: validity, influences on motivation, and role in a multilingual education

ABSTRACT

L2 motivation research has a longstanding monolingual bias. Recently, however, the motivational systems of a multilingual's different languages have been conceptualised as constituting a multilingual motivational system, and it has been suggested that interactions between the ideal Lx self and the ideal Ly self can lead to the emergence of an ideal multilingual self. While the notion of an ideal multilingual self chimes with research on multilinguals’ identity experiences, it has not been investigated empirically. The purpose of this study is to establish whether there is empirical support for the proposed ideal multilingual self construct, and whether it influences motivation to learn a second foreign language. A questionnaire containing items measuring the ideal L2 self and the ideal multilingual self was administered to a sample of secondary students (N = 323) at two schools in Sweden with international profiles. Using structural equation modelling, analyses yielded discriminant validity for the ideal multilingual self construct, and revealed an indirect influence on intended effort mediated via the ideal L2 self. On the strength of these results, a case is made for future research into people's motivation to be or become multilingual, and educational interventions focused on developing students’ ideal multilingual selves.

KEYWORDS:

• Motivation
• multilingualism
• ideal multilingual self
• multilingual pedagogies

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the students and teachers at the two schools, and our colleagues who assisted in the data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Following the arguments of Cenoz and Gorter (2015), and Block (2015), in this article the terms ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ multilingual are understood as ‘distinguishable yet interrelated and interlinked phenomena’ (Block, 2015, p. 236).

2 In self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987), future self-guides represent points of comparison that are reconciled through the individual's behaviours. In the L2 Motivational Self System the two self-guides are the Ideal L2 Self and the Ought-to L2 Self (Dörnyei, 2009).

3 It should be noted that there were also participants in Pavlenko’s (2006) study whose experiences of bi/multilingualism were not positive. For people for whom learning an additional language involved a sense of loss, transitioning between languages constituted a source of discomfort, and identity experiences connected with being multilingual involved feelings of fragmentation, incompleteness, and inadequacy.

4 Calculated by multiplying the coefficients for the direct effects, following the paths in Figure 3.