Transcript Slide 1

Researching L2 Motivation:
Towards Combined QuantitativeQualitative Paradigms
Zoltán Dörnyei
University of Nottingham
([email protected])
“I don’t know what motivation is but
it definitely keeps me going.”
Based on:
• Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the
language learner: Individual differences in
second language acquisition. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Dörnyei, Z. (in press). Research methods in
applied linguistics: Quantitative, qualitative
and mixed methodologies. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Motivation
Three phases of L2 motivation research:
•
The social psychological period (1959-1990) –
characterised by the work of Robert Gardner and
his students and associates in Canada.
•
The cognitive-situated period (during the
1990’s) – characterised by work drawn on cognitive
theories in educational psychology, mainly
conducted outside Canada.
•
New approaches (past decade) – characterised
by an interest in motivational change and in the
relationship between motivation and identity/self.
Social psychological
period
 Motivation research was
inspired and spearheaded by
social psychologist Robert
Gardner in Canada. Facing an
ethnolinguistically split society,
his main interest in motivation
was the fact that the
motivation to learn the other
community’s language might
be the key to the reconciliation
of the Francophone and
Anglophone communities.
Gardner’s theory
 Key element: ‘language attitudes’,
referring to the language learners’
perceptions of the L2, the L2 speakers, as
well as the sociocultural and pragmatic
values/benefits associated with the L2.
 Main tenet: Success in language learning
depends on the learner’s attitudes towards
the linguistic cultural community of the target
language.
Gardner’s theory
Most important motivational dimension:
• An interpersonal/affective dimension:
Language learning is motivated by the
positive attitudes towards members of the
other language community and by the desire
to communicate with them, and sometimes
even to become like them – ‘integrative
orientation’ / ‘integrativeness’ /
‘integrative motivation’.
Cognitive-situated
period
 The 1990’s brought about a general
dissatisfaction with the scope of Gardner’s
theory. While no one questioned the
significance of the Canadian social
psychological approach, the general message
coming from various parts of the world was
that ‘There is more to motivation!’.
Cognitive-situated
period
 L2 motivation research became increasingly
‘education-friendly’, focusing on motives
associated with classroom learning, and it
also adopted a situated approach, focusing
on the main components of the learning
situation (such as the teacher, the curriculum
and the learner group).
New approaches
1. A process-oriented approach attempts to
account for the ongoing changes of
motivation over time. Looking at it from this
perspective, motivation is not seen as a static
attribute but rather as a dynamic factor
that displays continuous fluctuation, going
through certain ebbs and flows (see Dörnyei,
2000, 2001).
New approaches
2. Motivation and the self: Dörnyei (2005)
has proposed a new approach to the
understanding of L2 motivation, conceived
within an ‘L2 Motivational Self System’,
which attempts to integrate a number of
influential L2 theories (e.g. by Noels, 2003;
Norton, 2001; Ushioda, 2001) with findings
of self research in psychology.
L2 Motivational Self
System
 Key tenet: ‘Integrativeness/integrative
motivation’ is equated with the ‘Ideal L2 Self’.
 The Ideal L2 Self refers to the L2-specific facet
of one’s ‘ideal self’, which is the representation
of all the attributes that a person would like to
possess (e.g. hopes, aspirations, desires)
 If one’s ideal self is associated with the mastery
of an L2, that is, if the person that we would like
to become is proficient in the L2, he/she can be
described – using Gardner’s terminology – as
having an ‘integrative’ disposition.
L2 Motivational Self
System
• ‘Ideal L2 Self’: The L2-specific facet of one’s ‘ideal
self’ – if the person we would like to become speaks
an L2, the ‘ideal L2 self’ is a powerful motivator to
learn the L2 because we would like to reduce the
discrepancy between our actual and ideal selves.
• ‘Ought-to L2 Self’: The attributes that one believes
one ought to possess to avoid possible negative
outcomes, and which therefore may bear little
resemblance to the person’s own desires or wishes.
• ‘L2 Learning Experience’, which concerns
executive motives related to the immediate learning
environment and experience.
Quantitative research
• Goal: generalising findings to the larger
community
• Numbers and formalised procedures the research results are relatively
independent of the researcher
• Typical method: questionnaire survey
Qualitative research
• Goal: uncovering situated, personal
meaning, and often multiple meanings
• Emergent, iterative, evolving nature
• Takes place through extended contact in
natural settings
• Smaller samples of participants
• Main research method: qualitative interview
study
Mixed methods
research
• Main assumption: It is possible to combine
QUAL and QUAN methods in a way that
brings out the best while cancels out the
weaknesses of each method.
• Understanding complex issues requires a
complex design (e.g. macro/societal and
micro/individual level analyses)
Mixed methods
research
• Mixing methods is not good per se; in fact, it
can be a distraction to serious research.
However, certain principled mixtures can
combine different methods in such a way
that their strengths are added up, thereby
making the sum greater than the parts.
• This ‘additive mixing’ is at the heart of
mixed methods research.
• At the end of this talk I will describe several
examples of successful mixing within the
area of motivation research.
Researching
motivation
We can conceive of three main types of
motivational data:
• Questionnaire (survey) data – this is
typically quantitative and is processed by
means of various statistical procedures.
• Interview data – this is normally qualitative
and is processed by means of some sort of
‘content analysis’ (although if the interview is
structured, the data can also be quantified).
• Observational data – this can be both
QUAL and QUAN depending on the nature of
the ‘observation scheme/method’ employed.
Quantitative studies
1. Survey research: The standard, ‘default’
method (for a methodological overview, see
Dörnyei, 2003; the most famous motivation
questionnaire is Robert Gardner’s, 1985,
Attitude/Motivation Test Battery; for the
biggest ever L2 motivation survey, see
Dörnyei et al., 2006).
Variations: repeated survey (Gardner et
al. 2004), on-line or real-time survey
(Boekaerts, 2002; Julkunen, 1989),
internet-based survey (Dewaele, 2004).
Quantitative studies
2. Experimental study: This can be used to
examine the effectiveness of motivational
interventions (e.g. applying motivational
strategies). The design involves an
‘experimental group’ (or ‘treatment group’),
which receives the treatment, and a ‘control
group’, that is similar in every respect to
the treatment group except for the fact that
it did not receive the treatment. Their
results are compared. E.g. Inbar et al.
(2001), Wu (2003).
Qualitative studies
3. Interview study: Questionnaire cannot do the
complexity of situated studies (e.g. classroom
research) full justice because of the small
sample sizes and the many important
idiosyncratic variables. In contrast, in the
typical interview format, the ‘semi-structured
interview’, the interviewer can freely explore
each respondent’s individual case (Nikolov,
2001; Williams & Burden, 1999).
Variation: Repeated interview study (Dörnyei
et al. 2004; Ushioda, 2001), retrospective
longitudinal interview (Shoaib & Dörnyei,
2005).
Mixed methods
designs
4. Observational study: Because motivation
is unobservable, observational data can
only be used to receive information about
the consequences of motivation (rather
than motivation itself), for example about
motivated behaviour, and therefore this
data type needs to be combined with either
questionnaire of interview data. E.g. Egbert
(2003); Guilloteaux and Dörnyei
(submitted).
Mixed methods
designs
5. Questionnaire survey with follow-up
interview to further explore the inherently
superficial questionnaire data in depth. E.g.
Lamb (2004), Williams et al., (2002).
Variation: Questionnaire or observational
data with follow-up retrospective interviews
(Egbert, 2003).
6. Questionnaire survey with preceding
interview to facilitate the design of new
questionnaires (Tseng et al. 2006)
Mixed methods
designs
7. Interview study with follow-up
questionnaire to test the generalisability
of the findings of the interview (Edwards,
2006).
8. Interview study with preceding
questionnaire to make the selection of the
interviewees more principled (Yasmin,
2005).
Mixed methods
designs
9. Concurrent combinations of QUAL and
QUAN research to (a) examine how
different findings complement or
corroborate each other (i.e. ‘triangulation’)
and to (b) broaden the research perspective
and look at the ‘bigger picture’ (e.g. by
embedding a qualitative component within a
larger, primarily quantitative study such as
a programme evaluation; or by looking at a
phenomenon such as demotivation or
globalisation both from a micro- and a
macro-perspective ).
Mixed methods
designs
Thank you for coming and thank you for
your attention!