Conceptualizing why we learn additional languages
Michael Rabbidge
To start the new year, I thought I might begin a series of blogs that discuss the diverse ways in which the reasons for learning a new language are theorized. Currently in TESOL research there are a myriad of conceptualizations for why people learn a new language, ranging from theories focusing on motivation (Dornyei & Ushioda, 2009), investment (Norton Pierce, 1995), self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 2002), to desire (Motha & Lin, 2014), emotion (Benesch, 2012; Pavlenko, 2005), identity (Norton, 2000), and imagination (Kanno & Norton, 2003).
Each of these different concepts seeks to understand why we learn additional languages. They are grounded in post-structuralist perspectives on language learning that situate a want to learn a language within larger social discourses influenced by contextual elements including ideologies, beliefs, and affective spaces.
Such perspectives suggest that wanting to learn a language is more than just an innate need that arises from within an individual; it is related to how an individual is situated in a given context. When the context requires individuals to know a new language, this creates a need within the individual to learn a language.
Although concepts like motivation, investment, self-determination, desire, emotion, identity, and imagination all conceive of this relationship between the individual and their context differently, they all strive to better account for how a want to learn a new language is intersubjectively co-constructed and shaped by people’s social, historical, political, and economic realities and histories.
An explanation of why someone wants to learn a language needs to consider a variety of interconnected levels of description. This includes the individual level, the community they are situated in or want to be a part of, teachers and their educational beliefs and goals, institutionally influenced discourses and beliefs regarding effective pedagogy, and state-level ideologies that influence perceptions governments have regarding the value of languages.
Considering the variables that are potentially at play when it comes to learning a language is part of a critical action that exposes implicit influences which shape the actions of people in regard to larger social discourses. It allows individuals to understand why they think they want something, and if they agree with that rationale for wanting it. It exposes exploitation and marginalization of minority groups, and usually the valorization of dominant groups in society. Language is often at the forefront of change, and often used as a guise to maintain certain inequities in society. When languages are valued or devalued, it is an ideologically influenced action related to issues of power disturbance or maintenance.
Each month I will look at a different conceptualization of why we want to learn a language, discussing how they relate to the teaching, learning, and the positioning of languages in society. Although treated separately, they should all be considered in relation to each other as an overall attempt to better understand why we want to learn additional languages.
References
Benesch, S. (2012). Considering emotions in critical English language teaching. New York, NY: Routledge
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2002). Handbook of self-determination research. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press
Dornyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2009). Motivation, language identity and the L2 self. Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters
Kanno, Y., & Norton, B. (2003). Imagined communities and educational possibilities: Introduction. Journal of Language, Identity, & Education, 2, 241–249. doi:10.1207/S15327701JLIE02041
Motha, S., & Lin, A. (2014). “Non-coercive Rearrangements”: Theorizing Desire in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 48(2), 331-359
Norton Peirce, B. (1995). Social identity, investment, and language learning. TESOL Quarterly, 29, 9–31
Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity, and educational change. Harlow, England: Longman
Pavlenko, A. (2005). Emotions and multilingualism. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511584305