Reviews
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Motivation and Foreign Language Learning: From Theory
to Practice
D. Lasagabaster, A. Doiz, and J. M. Sierra (eds.)
John Benjamins Publishing 2014, 190 pp., € 33.00
isbn 978 9 02721 323 5
Over the past 20 years or so, motivation has
moved from being a peripheral issue in language
education to a prominent position in the thoughts
of both educators and researchers. For teachers,
motivation appears to offer a route to improved
learning outcomes, since there is a broad consensus
that motivation is a key factor in achievement; for
theoretically oriented researchers, the challenge
of understanding and explaining the range of
possibilities informing language learner behaviour
is proving to be an irresistible one. Evidence of the
growing awareness of the importance of motivation
on the part of classroom practitioners can be
found in the frequent discussions of the topic in
practice-oriented forums and the popularity of
workshops concerned with learner motivation. On
the theoretical side, recent years have witnessed a
huge ‘publication surge’ (Boo, Dörnyei, and Ryan
2015) in motivation studies, with a spectacular
increase in the number of academic journal articles
and books devoted to the topic. A crucial factor
behind this high level of activity is that motivation
appears to be an area where abstract theoretical
considerations connect to classroom realities
(Dörnyei and Ryan 2015). However, these two strains
of inquiry—the theoretical and the practical—have
tended to exist independently and there is now a
clear need for work that explicitly addresses their
links. As the editors of Motivation and Foreign
Language Learning: From Theory to Practice observe,
‘The ever increasing workload of teachers leaves little
time for searching through the currently abundant
literature on motivation’ (p. 177). And the same can
be true for researchers, who are often too absorbed
in theoretical complexities to explore practical
classroom applications. This is the important gap
ELT Journal Volume 70/2 April 2016
© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
that Motivation and Foreign Language Learning: From
Theory to Practice aims to address.
This aim of linking theory and practice is immediately
apparent from a glance at the contents page. The core
of the book consists of eight chapters divided into
two parts: the first four of these chapters are primarily
theoretical discussions with the second part of the
book being made up of four studies on motivation
in foreign language classroom settings. These eight
chapters are sandwiched between an introduction and
an epilogue from the editors.
In the opening chapter, Zoltán Dörnyei, Christine
Muir, and Zana Ibrahim discuss Directed Motivational
Currents (DMCs), an exciting new theory of learner
motivation concerned with sustained periods of
effort and engagement. This serves as an excellent
opening chapter for several reasons. Firstly, the work
of Zoltán Dörnyei has been central to the development
of motivation theory and research over the past 20
years and his presence in this volume immediately
identifies it as essential reading for anyone with
a serious interest in language learner motivation.
Secondly, DMCs are cutting-edge theory attracting
a lot of scholarly attention at the moment and likely
to attract even more in coming years; as an early
articulation of the concept, this chapter is sure to be
widely read and cited in the future. Thirdly, the DMC
framework provides the editors with a useful structure
for organizing their own concluding chapter, lending
the book a neat symmetry.
If Zoltán Dörnyei has been the lead driver behind the
rise of motivation to its current prominent position
on the language education research agenda, Ema
Ushioda has been a key co-driver and navigator. In the
book’s second chapter, Ushioda explores the interface
between motivation and metacognition. This is a
timely and important chapter. Much of the growth
in interest in motivation has been fuelled by the
simplistic notion that motivation—and by implication,
successful learning—is merely a matter of furnishing
learners with the ‘will’ to learn, a kind of ‘where there’s
a will, there’s a way’ wishful thinking. Drawing on
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self-regulation literature, Ushioda outlines some of
the problems associated with regarding motivation as
solely connected to ‘will’. She also considers the ‘skill’
aspect of motivation, the ways in which metacognition
can sustain motivation, especially when language
learning has moved beyond the early stages of basic
proficiency. The next chapter comes from Do Coyle,
who is known more for her work on CLIL than on
motivation, and this gives her contribution to this
book a certain freshness, especially for readers
familiar with the recent motivation literature. Here, her
chapter draws on studies of CLIL classrooms where
languages other than English are used for instruction.
This makes a further welcome change, since so
much of the ‘language learning’ motivation literature
is concerned solely with English. In the chapter,
she illustrates some of the motivational benefits of
learners analysing and taking ownership of their own
learning. The final chapter in the theoretical section
comes from Magdalena Kubanyiova. While there has
been an explosion in motivation research in recent
years, the vast majority of that research has—perhaps
understandably—focused on learner motivation.
Throughout this period, Kubanyiova has been doing a
lot of very interesting and important work on teacher
motivation. Her chapter in this book connects to the
field of language teacher cognition research and in it
she develops some of her earlier work on teachers’
conceptual change in order to outline key processes in
the construction of teachers’ vision.
The four theoretical chapters in this section cover
a lot of ground. They are all of a very high standard
and manage to maintain a delicate balance between
being accessible for readers new to motivation theory,
yet challenging and stimulating enough for readers
familiar with the existing literature. The theoretical
section alone will serve as a useful resource for both
novice and more experienced researchers.
The second part of the book consists of four studies
of motivation in language classrooms. The first of
these comes from Alastair Henry, who has been
behind some of the most thought-provoking writing
on motivation in recent years. In his chapter, Henry
considers how the beliefs of Swedish learners of
English about the efficacy of naturalistic learning
settings can impact on the motivation to learn in
classroom settings. The next study comes from
the book’s three editors. In their study of five
secondary schools in Spain, they look at what makes
students feel motivated—or demotivated—in CLIL
classes. This chapter is particularly welcome as it
focuses on younger learners; like many areas of
research, motivation studies have suffered from an
imbalance between studies investigating university
226 Reviews
learners—easily accessible to researchers—
and other learning contexts. This imbalance is
something that future motivation research will need
to redress and the inclusion of this study sends out
a timely reminder. Similarly based in the Spanish
CLIL context, Francisco Lorenzo’s study looks at the
motivational role played by classroom materials.
This is perhaps the chapter with the strongest
practical orientation and teachers are likely to find
the examples of learning materials discussed here
highly informative. The final study in this section is
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the one that most explicitly explores and reinforces
the links between theory, research, and practice.
Vera Busse’s chapter is based on a mixed-methods
longitudinal study of learners of German in higher
education institutions in the United Kingdom.
That study has strong and original theoretical
foundations, particularly in its exploration of
Hattie’s (2014) concept of visible learning, which is
yet to receive the attention it warrants in the field
of language education. In addition to the robust
theoretical and empirical underpinnings, the chapter
offers clear practical applications, most notably in
its discussion of the motivational value of teacher
feedback.
The studies in this section provide a vital snapshot of
language learning motivation in context. However, that
snapshot is more close-up portrait than panoramic
landscape. There were times when I felt the book may
have benefitted from a few more classroom studies,
especially since one of the central themes of the book
is the highly situated and contextually based nature of
motivation; indeed, in their closing chapter, the editors
comment on how the ‘data-based chapters cannot be
applied to other settings’ (p. 177) without considerable
adaptation. In this book, the editors—perhaps because
the book emerged from a local conference—have
chosen to focus on the European context, with an
emphasis on CLIL in higher education. As a result,
potential readers outside this educational setting may
feel that the book lacks immediate relevance to their
own context, which is a great pity. Speaking as someone
located firmly outside the European CLIL world, I was
still able to find plenty of ideas that I could relate to my
own teaching context in the book’s practice-oriented
chapters. In support of the editors’ approach, it may
well be the case that producing a coherent volume
spanning multiple and diverse learning contexts is
an impractical task. For those interested in a broader
international overview, there is already excellent
material available (Ushioda 2013) and it may well be the
case that in the future, we will see more geographically
defined works investigating specific cultural settings
(Apple, Da Silva, and Fellner 2013).
Motivation and Foreign Language Learning: From Theory
to Practice should be of interest to practitioners,
teacher educators, and researchers alike. Both the
theoretical section and the classroom-based section
are strong in their own right, yet the book’s real
achievement comes in placing the connections
between theory and practice at its core.
References
Apple, M. T., D. Da Silva, and T. Fellner (eds.). 2013.
Language Learning Motivation in Japan. Bristol:
Multilingual Matters.
Boo, Z., Z. Dörnyei, and S. Ryan. 2015. ‘L2 motivation
research 2005–2014: understanding a publication
surge and a changing landscape’. System 55: 145–57.
Dörnyei, Z. and S. Ryan. 2015. The Psychology of the
Language Learner Revisited. Oxford: Routledge.
Hattie, J. 2014. Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing
Impact on Learning. Oxford: Routledge.
Ushioda, E. (ed.). 2013. International Perspectives
on Motivation: Language Learning and Professional
Challenges. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
The reviewer
Stephen Ryan is Professor of Applied Linguistics in
the School of Culture, Media and Society at Waseda
University, Tokyo. His research and publications cover
various aspects of psychology in language learning,
with his most recent book being Exploring Psychology
in Language Learning and Teaching, co-authored with
Marion Williams and Sarah Mercer (Oxford University
Press 2015).
Email: stephen.ryan@waseda.jp
doi:10.1093/elt/ccw008
Reviews
International Perspectives on Motivation: Language
Learning and Professional Challenges
E. Ushioda (ed.)
Palgrave Macmillan 2013, 243 pp., £23
isbn 978 1 137 00089 7
The field of language learning psychology has
been dominated by the construct of motivation for
many years and there have been a vast plethora of
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publications on the construct. However, this vibrant
field has not been static and is by no means saturated.
Understandings of the construct as well as ways of
researching it have changed dramatically, especially in
more recent years with the recognition of the changed
global landscape of ELT and new social and dynamic
perspectives (see historical overview in Dörnyei and
Ushioda 2011). Ema Ushioda, Editor of the collection,
has been at the forefront of many of the developments
in the field, especially her groundbreaking contribution
in opening up qualitative approaches to the study
of motivation (Ushioda 1994), in socially situating
the construct, in particular drawing attention to the
concept of ‘person-in-context’ (Ushioda 2009), and in
continually seeking to link research and practice. It is
therefore not surprising that this collection positively
reflects many of these same themes.
The aim of the series is to take key constructs from
the field of ELT and illuminate them from international
perspectives. Both Ushioda herself in Chapter 1
and the series Editors (Garton and Richards) in
the Preface recognize the challenges of taking an
‘international’ perspective that is locally situated
but globally relevant. The collection begins with an
introductory chapter by Ushioda, in which she outlines
the rationale underlying the collection. The idea is that
writers, who are both practitioners and researchers,
present their local research and experiences in a way
which is intended to resonate with and provoke the
reflection of a wider, global audience. The backdrop to
all these studies and a key message of the volume is
that given the rise of global English and the changing
global landscape of ELT, local contexts have become
particularly important to understand in discussions
of motivation (p. 3) as neat categorization of and
generalizations about ‘types’ of contexts have
become impossible. As Ushioda asks ‘when there
is such fluidity of movement as there is today, when
multilingualism rather than monolingualism is the
norm, and when people regularly traverse multiple
social networks and communities locally, virtually
and internationally, how can we possibly characterise
the interactions between context and motivation for
learning and using English?’ (p. 6).
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