Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations in Language Learning: Advances in Theory, Research, and Applications

Motivation is one of the key learner characteristics that determine the rate and success of language learning: It provides the primary impetus to embark upon learning and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process. Due to the complex nature of language itself – it is at the same time a communication code, an integral part of the individual’s identity, and the most important channel of social organization – language learning motivation is a multifaceted construct, consisting of a range of different motives associated with certain features of the language, the language learner, and the learning situation. This volume addresses this intriguing complexity by first providing a comprehensive overview of the recent development and the most important research directions in the field, and then by offering a selection of data–based studies by some of the best–known motivation researchers. These research papers conceptualize the motivation complex in different yet complementary ways, proposing and empirically validating various constituent attitudes, orientations and motives – hence the title of the volume.

Attitudes, Orientations, and Motivations in Language Learning: Advances in Theory, Research, and Applications: Zoltán Dörnyei. Why Are You Learning a Second Language? Motivational Orientations and Self–Determination Theory (Language Learning, 2000, 50/1, 57–85): Kimberly A. Noels, Luc G. Pelletier, Richard Clément and Robert J. Vallerand. The Role of Gender and Immersion in Communication and Second Language Orientations (Language Learning, 2000, 50/2, 311–341): Susan C. Baker and Peter D. MacIntyre. Learning Spanish as a Second Language: Learners’ Orientations and Perceptions of Their Teachers’ Communication Style (Language Learning, 2001, 51/1, 107–144): Kimberly A. Noels. Sex and Age Effects on Willingness to Communicate, Anxiety, Perceived Competence, and L2 Motivation Among Junior High School French Immersion Students (Language Learning, 2002, 52/3, 537–564): Peter D. MacIntyre, Susan C. Baker, Richard Clément and Leslie A. Donovan. Attitudes, Motivation, and Second Language Learning: A Meta–Analysis of Studies Conducted by Gardner and Associates (Language Learning, 2003, 53/1): Anne–Marie Masgoret and Robert C. Gardner.

Zoltán Dörnyei (PhD in psycholinguistics, Eötvös University, Budapest) is currently Reader/Associate Professor in the School of English Studies, University of Nottingham, where he is also Co–Director of the Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics. He has published over 50 academic papers on various aspects of second language acquisition and language teaching methodology, and is the author of several books, including Interpersonal Dynamics in Second Language Education: The Visible and Invisible Classroom ( 1998, Sage Publisher; co–authored with Madeline Ehrman), Teaching and Researching Motivation (2001, Longman), Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom (2001, Cambridge University Press) and Questionnaires in Second Language Research: Construction, Administration, and Processing (2002, Lawrence Erlbaum).

"This book provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of motivational theories and recent research developments and directions, reporting on studies that represent the ′cutting–edge′ in the field ... well–structured, well–written and well–edited." Language Awareness