Points of transition in life are accepted as times which impact greatly on aspects of the individual's psyche, including motivation to learn. In spite of this, pupils' views are rarely heard in discussions of transition from primary to secondary school in general and in relation to modern languages in particular. This exploratory study…

This study employed a large-scale cross-sectional survey (n = 443) to develop and validate second language (L2) regulatory styles [Noels et al. 2000. "Why are You Learning a Second Language? Motivational Orientations and Self-Determination Theory." "Language Learning" 50 (1): 57-85] in the sample of successful English learners…

This article reports part of an empirical research study undertaken in state secondary schools in England in 2012/2013, to investigate the extent to which Content and Integrated Learning (CLIL) promotes pupil motivation in the teaching of modern foreign languages (MFLs). Pupil perspectives of the impact of CLIL on their motivation are presented…

We argue for a transformation in the current learning and literacy education of marginalized and nondominant groups of English-as-a-Foreign Language (EFL) refugee learners in Lebanon. This paper describes the process of combining Third Space (TS) and Literature Circles (LC) to develop an instructional model of a transformative pedagogy for…

Increasing awareness of how individual motivation to learn language can fluctuate and change puts a premium on longitudinal research methods which can track learners over set periods of time. Revisiting previous research participants is one means of effecting this. This paper describes follow-up studies of an original research project in Indonesia…

Universities in the EFL context aim to foster graduates who can use English in the workplace. Regardless, university students' insufficient amount of out-of-class study time is a major issue. This problem may stem from learners' lack of learning skills, low levels of learning motivation, and high levels of academic procrastination. Self-coaching…

L2 classroom is a place and process that undergoes an array of incessant and concurrent changes affecting its main agents, i.e. the teacher and students in a non-linear and unpredictable manner. Various aspects of their cognitive and affective potential fluctuate and intensify or weaken depending on what is going on in a particular L2…

The past decade has witnessed a plethora of research in teaching second language reading, and how to teach with efficiency has gradually gained ground in the field of Second Language Acquisition. Even though empirical studies have revealed that there is a positive correlation between students' learning motivation and learning outcome for effective…

Easy and rapid access to the Internet, the affordances of Web 2.0 tools and technological advances, such as smartphone applications, have rendered informal contact with English an undisputed reality. This out-of-class contact without the primary or conscious objective of language learning has been the focus of recent research into the field of…

This paper describes a two-month longitudinal study in which five secondary education students learning English as a foreign language at school will be interviewed in order to analyse how their motivation varies during this period and what variables affect their motivational changes. The emphasis will thus be on motivation's dynamicity and…

This article considers the issue of low levels of motivation for foreign language learning in England by exploring how language learning is conceptualised by different key voices in that country through the examination of written data: policy documents and reports on the UK's language needs, curriculum documents and press articles. The extent to…

Every individual has a different perspective on time, known as "temporal perspective". A person's orientation and attitude towards time can have a profound effect on their behaviour and motivation. In Second Language Acquisition, a variety of work has considered learners and their behaviours from various temporal perspectives. However,…

Time factors complexly, dynamically interact with each other and with other contextualized variables in language learning. The time-tied nature of language learning is captured in what I call the "time-prism," which is the central symbol of temporality in this paper. The facets of the prism discussed in this article are (1) language…

Twenty Japanese university freshmen majoring in International Studies (N = 4) and Nursing (N = 16) participated in a 10-month project examining changes in their motivation. Using monthly focus group interviews and a 35-item questionnaire, the dynamic systems of various types of learners of English over two semesters were explored. Trajectories of…

Despite the plethora of literature examining higher education students' motivation to learn a second language, it is not known if students who choose to study English as their major differ from those who are required to study English as the minor component of their wider degree. Drawing on self-determination theory, this paper reports on the…