The Identity Crisis in Language Motivation Research

Abstract

The 40th anniversary of the Journal of Language and Social Psychology occurs around the corner of another anniversary, the language motivation field reaching 60 years. At this occasion, we pause to reflect on the contribution of language motivation research to language teaching practice. We argue that this contribution has been negligible and put forward two main reasons. The first is related to an identity crisis in the language motivation field, falling at the intersection of applied linguistics, education, and psychology; the second is the marginalization of the role of context. To address these issues, we first present insights from two perspectives—sociocultural theory and complex dynamic systems theory—and then propose three solutions to incorporate these insights: (1) moving from the abstract notion of “motivation” to the more tangible construct of “engagement”, (2) encouraging rigorous transdisciplinary research, and (3) taking advantage of the potential of artificial intelligence to translate research findings into practice.