Timescales

Motivation for learning a new language is both self and time-oriented. The language learner’s motivation experiences gradual fluctuation over time and the view of oneself is different on each timescale of the study. Interaction among different timescales throughout the Second Language Development (SLD) is a novel area of investigation (de Bot, 2015). In order to probe this interactive nature, the present study tried to examine the motivational dynamics of a group of language learners in longer timescales composed of a number of tasks performed on shorter timescales. To this end, a group of university students were surveyed at the onset, while performing tasks and at the end of the course to better picture the interplay of different motivational themes over time. The results revealed different manifestations of components of L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) over different timescales of the study. Apart from this evolutionary manifestation of L2MSS components, ANNOVA results revealed significant difference between scores of each individual component among all three timescales. In sum, results of the study confirmed temporal and visionary variation in participants’ motivation. Finally, some implications were driven from the findings of the study.

Motivation for learning a new language does not have an all-or-none impact. It is gradually ‎formed and fluctuated over time and on each timescale has varying levels of influence on a ‎person’s endeavor to learn a language. At the present time, scholars claim that throughout the ‎Second Language Development (SLD) different timescales interact with each other and this ‎interaction is nonlinear, complex and dynamic in nature (de Bot 2015). The present study ‎attempted to investigate the motivational dynamics of a group of Persian learners in longer ‎timescales composed of a number of tasks performed on shorter timescales. Ten participants were ‎interviewed at the onset, while performing tasks and at the end of the course to better picture the ‎interplay of different motivational themes over time. The findings confirmed temporal variation ‎in participants’ motivation. Although some individual specific variation was observed, the ‎average group motivation was increasingly tending toward an overall stable state. Moreover, the ‎data revealed the fact that motivational themes were not equally effective over the course and ‎during task performance. It was shown, for example, that factors influencing learners’ initial ‎motivation were less influential during the task completion. Finally, L2 motivation was found to ‎contain an interrelationship of a number of dynamic and complex factors which varied over ‎different timescales and had different motivational intensity in each specific stage. Finally, some ‎implications were driven from the findings of the study.‎