Language Learning Motivation in the United States: An Examination of Language Choice and Multilingualism

Abstract

With the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) as a framework, this study is an investigation of the relationships among motivation, language choice, and multilingualism using data from 195 undergraduate learners of languages other than English (LOTEs) in the context of the United States. Motivation is operationalized by the three aspects of self (ideal, ought‐to, and anti‐ought‐to). Multilingualism is operationalized in two ways: previous language experience and Perceived Positive Language Interaction (PPLI), the latter being an emic perspective of multilingualism for which learners can only be considered to be multilingual if they can articulate positive interactions between foreign languages studied. A variety of analyses were used to answer questions relating to motivational group differences and language choice, the potential predictive nature of motivation in terms of language choice, group differences of motivational profiles between bi‐ and multilingual students for both operationalizations of multilingualism, and the person‐specific versus language‐specific nature of the three aspects of self. As most of the work on language learning motivation has been done with English language learners (ELLs), the results of this study with these LOTE learners are contextualized in terms of previous results with ELLs.