L2 Motivation and Multilingual Identities

By tradition, L2 motivation research has a monolingual bias – the motivational systems of a learner's different languages conceptualized as separate entities rather than as cognitively interconnected. At a time when multilingualism has become a new world order (Douglas Fir Group, [, 2016]) and where there is evidence of powerful identity experiences connected to speaking several languages (Pavlenko, [Pavlenko, A., 2006]) this is unfortunate. In alignment with the multilingual and dynamic turns in SLA (de Bot, [de Bot, K., 2015]; May, [May, S., 2014]), and adopting a complexity thought modeling approach (Larsen–Freeman & Cameron, [Larsen–Freeman, D., 2008]), this article explores multilingual learners’ L2 motivation. It is suggested that the motivational systems of a multilingual learner's different languages can be understood as constituting a higher‐level multilingual motivational self system that is part of an ecology of interconnected and interpenetrating systems. This system contains multilingual self guides, one of which is the ideal multilingual self . Drawing on construal‐level theory (Trope & Liberman, [Trope, Y., 2010]), the manner and effects of mental representations of an ideal multilingual self are assessed. Finally, it is suggested that motivation deriving from a broader identity that encompasses but, in important ways, transcends a multilingual person's language‐specific identities has a central role to play in multilingual education.