Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data from teachers and students in Hong Kong’s secondary schools, this book examines critical questions in relation to language learning motivation and instructional contexts. Readers are provided with a critical overview of developments in theory and research on language learning motivation and the potential to further extend these developments. Grounded in the Douglas Fir Group conceptualization of language learning, the book explores the complex interplay of diverse factors that shape learners’ motivation. It offers a unique window into the situated nature of language learning motivation in the macro, meso, and micro contexts of a Chinese heritage society. In so doing, it brings the Chinese voice into the theorization of this important language learning construct. Potential future research avenues are suggested, and implications for policy and practice are discussed. This book will be a useful resource for academics and postgraduates interested in the fields of English as a second language (ESL), English language teaching, language teaching and learning.

This handbook offers an authoritative, one-stop reference work for the dynamic and expanding field of language learning motivation. The 32 chapters have been specially commissioned from the field’s most influential researchers and writers. Together they present a compelling picture of the motivations people have for learning languages, the diverse ways we can research motivation, and the implications for promoting and sustaining learners’ motivation. The first section outlines the main theoretical approaches to language learning motivation; the next section presents ways in which motivation theory has been applied in practice; the third section showcases examples of motivation research in particular contexts and with particular types of language learners; and the final section describes the exciting directions that contemporary research is taking, promising important new insights for academics and practitioners alike.

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Orientalism / Sinology - Chinese / China, grade: 1,3, University of Göttingen, language: English, abstract: There is a vast amount of studies that try to investigate why students learn a second language. In the following term paper, the author tries to give an overview about the different motivational theories, beginning with the socio-educational model by Gardner and its specification by Dörnyei and Csizer. In addition to that, the author also takes a look at motivational theories that include heritage learners. Although until now there is no data available about the percentage of heritage learners among German students that learn Chinese as a second language, taking a look at the number of Chinese people living in Germany, points into the direction of a growing number of heritage learners at German schools. Over the last seven years, 2007 to 2014, the number of Chinese people living in Germany has grown from 78,000 to 110,000, which means an increase of approximately 30%, in some areas in Eastern Germany, Chinese even now make up the largest number of people from a foreign country among the population. Although the number of children under 18 only amounts to roughly 8,500, it can be be assumed, that in the future, there will be a significant number of heritage learners in German schools. The author’s term paper also takes a look at current empirical findings regarding motivation of learners, who learn Chinese as a second language and tries to evaluate possible implications for Chinese language classes. The basis for this is the best-practice approach for Chinese language classes by Andrea Valenzuela, which can be found in her book „Praktisches Handbuch für den Chinesischunterricht“ (2011).

This book provides rare insights into motivation among extremely successful learners of English and languages other than English (LOTEs) through the analysis of a longitudinal study and the examination of the factors involved in becoming multilingual in a non-multilingual environment. Based on sixteen interview sessions, conducted over the course of nine years while the learners progressed from high school to the world of work, this book offers the story of how two learners persist in English/LOTE learning. The study illuminates the long-term processes through which the interviewees develop ideal English/LOTE selves in an environment where multilingualism is not emphasized and where both English and LOTEs can still be described as foreign languages. Educators and researchers will learn from this study, which stretches our understanding of motivation beyond the recent theorizing of L2 motivation and contributes to the limited research in long-term motivational trajectories and LOTE learning motivation, which is particularly scarce in non-European contexts. The book will be of interest not only to readers in Japan but also to those in other contexts as it offers an example of successful learners who go beyond the pragmatic and instrumentalist view of language learning to hold a more holistic view, thus revealing the factors which can sustain multiple language learning, even in foreign language contexts.

This edited volume focuses on the experiences of individuals learning languages other than English (LOTEs) in a range of Asian contexts that have traditionally been under-represented in the literature. Aligning with the ‘multilingual turn’ in SLA, it views learners as individuals of a multilingual society with unique, complex, heterogenous and dynamic identities. The chapters explore the learners’ motivational trajectories, multilingual identities and their conceptualisations of the ‘ideal multilingual self’. This volume enhances our critical understanding of language learning motivation through empirical findings and conceptual insights from studies of motivation in specific regions in Asia, including Greater China, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Syria. Providing insight into the multilingual identities of individuals learning LOTEs, it will appeal to students and scholars in second language acquisition, researchers in language learning motivation and policymakers in language education.

The research in this volume takes account of the context of policy promoting Chinese as a second language (CSL) in several countries and regions, (Australia, East Asia and South-East Asia), and the wider social context of multilingual and multicultural societies. Furthermore, this book reports results of two research studies which investigated how to develop effective strategies to promote learners’ motivation and the motivational developments of adult learners in real-life settings, helping to overcome gaps in this under-researched area. Findings reported in this book have been scientifically examined and found to be effective in enhancing the learners’ CSL proficiency, increasing their learning motivation, and addressing the need for a diversity of targeted approaches to CSL. Most are applicable across preschool to secondary levels. The theoretical grounding of this research work represents a new direction for research in teaching Chinese as a second language.

This book provides a multifaceted, multilayered examination of the processes and challenges language teachers face in constructing their professional identities in multilingual contexts such as Hong Kong. It focuses on how professional and personal identities are enacted as individuals cross geographic, educational, and socio-cultural boundaries to become English language teachers in Hong Kong. It explores the construction of language teachers’ professional identities from multiple perspectives in multiple settings, including pre-service and in-service teachers from Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Western countries. Understanding the difficulties and challenges these language teachers face in their identity and professional development is of relevance to teachers and teacher educators, as well as those interested in becoming language teachers in multilingual contexts.