Complexity in Classroom Foreign Language Learning Motivation: A Practitioner Perspective from Japan

Richard J. Sampson

Published by Multilingual Matters 2016

Complexity in Classroom Foreign Language Learning Motivation

A Practitioner Perspective from Japan

Richard J. Sampson

In the series Second Language Acquisition

https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783095896

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book explores how complex systems theory can contribute to the understanding of classroom language learner motivation through an extended examination of the dynamic conditions operating in a foreign language classroom in Japan. Its reflexive, narrative approach shines light on the evolving nature of research and role of the researcher.

Author / Editor information

Sampson Richard J. :

Richard J. Sampson is a Lecturer in the University Education Center at Gunma University, Japan. His research interests concern situated exploration of the contextualised nature of the learning and teaching of foreign languages, the interrelations between language-learner self ideas, past, present and future learning experiences, and motivation.

Reviews

Lucy-Jane Collard, University of Westminster, UK:

The book proved to be a rich, gripping and sometimes theoretically demanding read, which I strongly recommend to teachers interested in foreign language learning motivation, regardless of the language they teach.

This is an ambitious and highly original book, exploring language learning motivation through a novel combination of complexity theory and action research. In his well-informed and insightful work, Richard Sampson has succeeded in integrating these two, seemingly incompatible fields. The outcome is an intriguing diary of a personal academic journey that covers an impressive range of ideas, from future self-images and transportable identities to classroom dynamics and directed motivational currents.

Sampson courageously opens up his classroom to explore how the students and their teacher develop from their emerging eclectic identities and how they socially influence each other. A whole-class awakening through iterations of possible-selves interventions, near-peer interactions, imaginings, self-reflections and mutual understandings, this landmark book establishes practitioner action research as a consequential inquiry in applied linguistics.

This is a deeply engaging and thought-provoking book that brings together action research, complexity thinking and self-and-identity perspectives to the analysis of language learning motivation as it evolved among persons-in-context in a particular classroom group over one year. Its reflexive insights will resonate with all of us interested in motivation as language teachers, researchers or teacher-researchers.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Tables and Figures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgements Richard J. Sampson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part 1: Growth: A Research Narrative
2. Groundings from Foreign Language Learning Motivation Research in Japan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
3. A Move to Socio-dynamic Motivation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
4. Research Design Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
5. Action Research Narrative Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
Part 2: Re-viewing
6. Revisiting Complex Systems Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
7. Class Group as Open System Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
8. Co-adaptation Between Self and Environment Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	104
9. Motivational Phase-shifts and Self-organisation Across the Class Group Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
10. Novel Motivational Emergence in the Class Group Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Part 3: Reciprocity
11. The Landscape of Classroom Motivation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
12. Conclusion and Iteration Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
Appendix A: Overview of English Course Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
Appendix B: Learning Journal Instructions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
Appendix C: Outline of Sessions in Action Research Cycles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	188
Appendix D: Change-action in Cycle 1 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	190
Appendix E: Change-action in Cycle 3 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	192
Appendix F: Change-action in Cycle 4 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
Appendix G: Change-action in Cycle 5 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
Appendix H: Outline of Final Infomercial Project Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	210
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225