Open AccessHistorical Development and Expansion of L2 Motivational Research
Author(s) -
Abdul Raham Omar,
Mirna Harwood
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
život i škola
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1849-0972
pISSN - 0044-4855
DOI - 10.32903/zs.67.2.6
Subject(s) - period (music) , situated , psychology , process (computing) , field (mathematics) , cognition , mathematics education , pedagogy , cognitive psychology , computer science , physics , mathematics , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , acoustics , pure mathematics , operating system
This article offers a historical analysis of the main phases that the L2motivation research has undergone. It presents a brief chronological account ofthe main theoretical developments in L2 motivation research to date. Thediscussion starts with a brief review of the social-psychological period, whichwas concerned with L2 motivational factors in intergroup relations. After that,it discusses the situated-cognitive period, which was interested in learners inclassroom settings, and the process-oriented period concerned with languagelearners and their circumstances. The last part of this article discusses therecent emerging theories in the L2 motivation field and the revolutionarycontribution they made to understand the relationship between students’motivation and the achieved proficiency level. These theoretical studiesinclude the recent themes that contributed massively to understanding the roleof motivation in the process of learning a target language and the extent towhich it determines the level of success achieved by its learners. Understanding language learners’ psychology enables practitioners to understand the role of L2 motivation and its implications in teaching a target language.