Search results

1

Anagnorisis and narrative incorporation: How significant incidents affect language-learning behavior

100%

Pigott J.

Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching

|

2019

|

vol. 9

|

issue 1

177-198

EN

This paper examines how fleeting experiences exert a disproportionately powerful effect on the language learning motivation and behavior of university students. A thematic analysis of interview data is used to show how significant incidents have two principal consequences. The first, anagnorisis, is an immediate, revelatory change in beliefs about language learning. The second, narrative incorporation, is a process through which the memory of the incident and/or its anagnorisis becomes a constituent of self-narratives. It is argued that the significant incident is best understood not as an external influence on motivation, but as a component of the learner’s worldview.

2

A call for a multifaceted approach to language learning motivation research: Combining complexity, humanistic, and critical perspectives

100%

Pigott J.

Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching

|

2012

|

vol. 2

|

issue 3

349-366

EN

In this paper I give an overview of recent developments in the L2 motivation field, in particular the movement away from quantitative, questionnaire-based methodologies toward smaller-scale qualitative studies incorporating concepts from complexity theory. While complexity theory provides useful concepts for exploring motivation in new ways, it has nothing to say about ethics, morality, ideology, politics, power or educational purpose. Furthermore, calls for its use come primarily from researchers from the quantitative tradition whose aim in importing this paradigm from the physical sciences appears to be to conceptualize and model motivation more accurately. The endeavor therefore remains a fundamentally positivist one. Rather than being embraced as a self-contained methodology, I argue that complexity theory should be used cautiously and prudently alongside methods grounded in other philosophical traditions. Possibilities abound, but here I suggest one possible multifaceted approach combining complexity theory, a humanisticconception of motivation, and a critical perspective.

3

A call for a multifaced approach to language learning motivation research:Combining complexity, humanistic, and critical perspectives

100%

Pigott J.

Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching

|

2012

|

vol. 2

|

issue 3

349-366

EN

In this paper I give an overview of recent developments in the L2 motivation field, in particular the movement away from quantitative, questionnaire-based methodologies toward smaller-scale qualitative studies incorporating concepts from complexity theory. While complexity theory provides useful concepts for exploring motivation in new ways, it has nothing to say about ethics, morality, ideology, politics, power or educational purpose. Furthermore, calls for its use come primarily from researchers from the quantitative tradition whose aim in importing this paradigm from the physical sciences appears to be to conceptualize and model motivation more accurately. The endeavor therefore remains a fundamentally positivist one. Rather than being embraced as a self-contained methodology, I argue that complexity theory should be used cautiously and prudently alongside methods grounded in other philosophical traditions. Possibilities abound, but here I suggest one possible multifaceted approach combining complexity theory, a humanisticconception of motivation, and a critical perspective.

Refine search results

3 Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching

1 2019

2 2012

3 Pigott J.

Anagnorisis and narrative incorporation: How significant incidents affect language-learning behavior

A call for a multifaceted approach to language learning motivation research: Combining complexity, humanistic, and critical perspectives

A call for a multifaced approach to language learning motivation research:Combining complexity, humanistic, and critical perspectives