Do Directed Motivational Current Phenomena Exist Everywhere? An Investigation into African EFL Learners’ Experiences

Abstract

The current study investigates African college students’ (ages 17-30) group-directed motivational currents (DMCs), a positive motivational aspect related to flow (Dörnyei, Henry, & Muir, 2016) in relation to their performance-based English development. The study measured the students’ motivational currents as they participated in an oral, integrated and multimedia presentation project. Two DMC questionnaires were taken by 100 students before and after they participated in the project (the first questionnaire was given after they received the project instructions, the second after they completed the project but before obtaining their scores). Five focal participants wrote diaries and participated in interviews to examine whether they experienced purposefully generated currents of motivation. The 100 students responded positively to the oral presentation project at both questionnaire administration times (pre- and post-project). Significant score increases from the pre-project to post-project appeared on most motivation variables. These significant increases observed at the post-project phase could be explained by the authenticity and importance of the project and its connectedness with the learners’ lives, as described by the five focal students. The results suggested that group-DMCs could be purposefully facilitated in African EFL classrooms, providing evidence for the validity of the DMC theory in an EFL context that is understudied.