The Role of Second Language Motivation in Constructing the Self: An Empirical Study to Investigate the Role of Motivational Trajectories in Negotiating and Reconstructing Academic Sojourners’ Desired Selves in the UK

<p style="text-align: justify;">This study is an endeavour to explicate the dissonance of the linguistic quality outcome of study abroad (SA) experiences by exploring the second language (L2) motivation of six academic sojourners in Manchester. A person-in-context approach revealed that developing intimate relationships with ‘native-speakers’, providing L2-mediated interaction opportunities with international students, and social approval were key determinants of the extent to which SA students were invested in social practices. Such social engagements were found to stem from second language motivation that is part of identity construction process. In addition, the thematic analysis of the narrative inquiries suggests that the global status of the English language defies the traditional conceptualisations of L2 motivation as most participants’ motivations were formed despite their negative or neutral attitudes towards the English community. The findings also endorse the role of the other as a robust motivational source by which learners can replenish their motivation stream, leading to social identity investment to construct their ideological selves. The paper concludes with a recommendation to re-interpret the conceptualisation of the Ideal L2 Self system because ‘native-speakers’ are rarely the closest parallels to L2 learners, and it should incorporate explicit intrinsic orientations. Furthermore, language institutions in SA contexts should direct their focus on establishing conversation clubs and hosting social events for SA students to provide a safe space for their identities to be developed, enacted and reconstructed.</p>

Investment and motivation in language learning: What's the difference?

The year 2020 marked the 25th year since Bonny Norton published her influential TESOL Quarterly article, ‘Social identity, investment, and language learning’ (Norton Peirce, 1995) and the fifth year since we, Darvin and Norton (2015), co-authored ‘Identity and a model of investment in applied linguistics’ in the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. From the time Norton's 1995 piece was published, investment and motivation have been conceptually imbricated and often collocated, as they hold up two different lenses to investigate the same reality: why learners choose to learn an additional language (L2). In our 2015 article, we made the case that while it is important to ask the question, ‘Are students motivated to learn a language?’ it is equally productive to ask, ‘Are students invested in the language practices of the classroom or community?’ (Darvin & Norton, 2015, p. 37). We recognize that the relationship between language teachers and learners is unequal, and that teachers hold the power to shape these practices in diverse ways. Teachers bring to the classroom not only their personal histories and knowledge, but also their own worldviews and assumptions (Darvin, 2015), which may or may not align with those of learners. Relations of power between learners can also be unequal. As Norton and Toohey (2011, p. 421) note: A language learner may be highly motivated, but may nevertheless have little investment in the language practices of a given classroom or community, which may, for example, be racist, sexist, elitist, anti-immigrant, or homophobic. Alternatively, the language learner's conception of good language teaching may not be consistent with that of the teacher, compromising the learner's investment in the language practices of the classroom. Thus, the language learner, despite being highly motivated, may not be invested in the language practices of a given classroom.

Despite dislocations: Uganda's Indians remaking home

The distinctive migration history of Uganda's Indians allows us to rethink diaspora identities and memory in forming translocal communities. Settlement, citizenship and displacement created a postcolonial order of overlapping allegiances and multiple, mobile identities. ‘Home’ had been extended and thus connected to sites in India and East Africa, yet the 1972 expulsion called into question the ways in which Uganda's Indians recalled the very idea of home. While expulsion was a momentous crescendo to nineteenth- and early twentieth-century migrations, it did not put an end to the history of Uganda's Indians. This article focuses on the life histories of diverse Indian migrants: an industrialist's multi-local legacy, the post-expulsion return of Indians to two Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India) neighbourhoods, the repatriation of former residents back to Uganda in the 1980s and 1990s, and a brand-new generation of Indians coming to Uganda. By tracing these movements, I examine Indian migrants’ articulations of identity, investment and interaction vis-à-vis East Africa and India. How do experiences of rejection and return factor into (multi)national loyalties, notions of home and diaspora identities? How does an autobiography, a built structure or a neighbourhood construct and complicate both memories of migration and a migrant community's identity? I place India and Africa on the same historical map, and, by doing so, offer a way to include Indians in the framework of African political economy and society.

Student Motivation, Identity and Investment Construction in French Immersion Studies at the University of Ottawa

This article focusses on the motivating factors behind the decision of first-year students in the French Immersion Studies (FIS) program at the University of Ottawa to continue their immersion studies at a university level, how they experience their studies within this program, and how this experience impacts their identity and investment in French language and culture. The findings presented are part of a study that demonstrates the positive influence that parents, teachers and relevant extracurricular experiences have on students’ decision to continue their immersion studies as well as the transformations of the students’ identity construction and investment which are enhanced through the FIS program, the bilingual environment which surrounds it, and students` activities.Keywords: motivation, identity, investment, French Immersion Studies RésuméCet article porte sur les facteurs qui ont motivé des étudiants en première année d’études à s’inscrire au programme du Régime d’Immersion Française (RIF) de l’Université d’Ottawa afin de poursuivre leurs études en immersion au niveau universitaire, leurs expériences dans ce programme ainsi que l’impact que ce programme a sur leur identité et investissement dans la langue et la culture françaises. Les résultats présentés font partie d’une étude qui montre l’influence positive des parents, enseignants, et expériences pertinentes hors programme sur la décision des étudiants de continuer leurs études en immersion ainsi que la transformation associée à leur construction identitaire à l’augmentation de leur investissement à la suite de participation dans le programme RIF, l’environnement bilingue qui l’environne et les activités des étudiants. Mots -clés : motivation, identité, investissement, Régime d’Immersion Française