Language learning motivation, self and identity: current theoretical perspectives

Abstract

Recently, the impact of globalization and the dominant status of English have provoked critical discussion in the L2 motivation field. Traditional concepts such as integrative motivation lose their explanatory power when English is becoming a ‘must-have’ basic educational skill and when there is no clearly defined target language community. In this article, I will examine how L2 motivation is currently being reconceptualized in the context of contemporary theories of self and identity – that is, people's sense of who they are, how they relate to the social world and what they want to become in the future. As I will discuss, this theoretical shift in focus to the internal domain of self and identity has important implications for how we as language teachers engage the motivation, interests and identities of our students; and for why we should exploit their world of digital technologies, social networking and online communication to this end.

Keywords:

• L2 motivation
• identity
• possible future selves
• digital technologies