Motivation on a Per-Second Timescale: Examining Approach–Avoidance Motivation During L2 Task Performance

Abstract

Examining motivation from a dynamic perspective just might be an embarrasse de riches. There certainly are a number of conceptual and methodological challenges presented by a dynamic perspective (de Bot et al., 2007; Howe & Lewis, 2005; Poupore, 2013); the chapters in this volume show that research is beginning to work out some problems even as other challenges reveal themselves. New understandings of motivation processes can be gained by examining real people interacting with language in real time. The dynamic approach taken in the present study looks at the motivation process up-close, as it unfolds within a set of language tasks. If prior research has taken a snapshot of the effects of motivation in order to examine relationships among variables (see Dörnyei, 2005; Gardner, 1985, 2010), the present method is more like studying a series of short films, where actors improvise their performances while being recorded on video (MacIntyre, 2012). Our approach in the present study uses a novel, idiodynamic methodology to capture fluctuations in approach/avoidance tendencies that lie at the core of motivation.