Metamotivation: Self-regulating task–motivation fit

Abstract

Regulating one’s motivation contributes to well-being and success across various domains, including language learning. For example, activating a promotion versus prevention regulatory focus orientation is generally more compatible with tasks requiring creativity and innovation (e.g., brainstorming) versus tasks requiring vigilance (e.g., proofreading), respectively. Metamotivation represents awareness of such task–motivation fit. This article reports a study involving Saudi language learners of English (N = 311) who were presented with language-related tasks requiring two different motivational orientations (e.g., brainstorming vs. proofreading) and were asked to indicate their preferred incentive structure (inducing eagerness vs. vigilance) under two contexts (independent vs. interdependent). The results showed that the participants exhibited metamotivational awareness in terms of promotion, but not prevention, orientation. Female participants displayed a marked overgeneralization bias, clearly favoring a promotion-inducing incentive structure even for vigilance tasks. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to task engagement and persistence and to expanding the scope of language motivation theory, paving the way for a new line of research into language learning metamotivation.