ELT motivation from a Complex Dynamic Systems Theory perspective: A longitudinal case study of L2 teacher motivation in Beijing

In the research field of second language acquisition (SLA), second language (L2) motivation is described as a subset of individual differences along with, among others, aptitude, language styles and learning strategies. In the 1990s, the study of L2 motivation recorded an unprecedented number of article publications (Dörnyei & Skehan, 2003), and this eventually led to multiple diverse methodological pathways. The proliferation of L2 motivation studies was a welcome phenomenon for L2 motivation researchers because since then, L2 motivation studies have become a fertile ground for ongoing developments. For one thing, quantitative approaches to investigating L2 motivation have reached a sophisticated stage by employing higher standards of statistical procedures (see for example, Csizér & Dörnyei, 2005; Taguchi et al., 2009). These studies show the possibility of a multifaceted causal structure to L2 motivation from a macro perspective. On the other hand, more attention has started to be paid to L2 motivation on an individual basis through qualitative and longitudinal research paradigms. This trend of L2 motivation research ‘has merged into a rapidly emerging broader strand within SLA, the study of complex dynamic systems’ (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011: xii).