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17 - Language Learner Motivation: What Motivates Motivation Researchers?

from Part IV - Individual Differences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 June 2019

By
Stephen Ryan
Edited by
John W. Schwieter  and
Alessandro Benati
John W. Schwieter
Affiliation:
Wilfrid Laurier University
Alessandro Benati
Affiliation:
American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
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Summary

Second language (L2) motivation as a field of research has expanded rapidly in recent years, attracting scholars from increasingly diverse educational contexts and theoretical perspectives. The move towards more learner-centred approaches in language education, together with an accompanying interest in the various contributions learners make to their own learning, pushed the study of motivation into a prominent position on the current research agenda. From a field consisting of a small group of researchers and a handful of infrequent articles in the 1980s, L2 motivation research has thrived (Boo, Dörnyei, & Ryan, 2015), with articles frequently appearing in leading journals and the field even meriting its own handbook (Lamb et al., forthcoming). Motivation, uniquely among the so-called language learner individual differences, has been enthusiastically embraced by both researchers and classroom practitioners, resulting in a fast-changing and rapidly expanding theoretical landscape.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Language Learning , pp. 409 - 429
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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