The Contexts within Me: L2 Self as a Complex Dynamic System

Abstract

Our sense of self is central to all we do, think, believe, feel and hope. It has become a focus of various strands of research within SLA such as studies of self-concept, self-efficacy, identity and work on the L2 self system of motivation (e.g., Dornyei, 2005; Dornyei & Ushioda, 2009; Mercer, 2011; Mills, Pajares & Herron, 2007; Norton, 2000). One of the primary differences across these areas of self-related research concerns the ways in which the self is conceptualised. Differences tend to reflect different theoretical frameworks stretching from those which are more strongly cognitive in character, typically concentrating on the mental representations of self in a more abstract, isolated manner, to more strongly situated definitions of the self in which its contextualised, socially constructed and dynamic character is foregrounded (Turner, Reynolds, Haslam & Veenstra, 2006). In this primarily conceptual chapter, I would like to take a complexity-informed perspective on the self in order to unite both mentally and socially situated views of the self. In doing so, I would like to reflect on and explore understandings about the dynamic interplay between a learner’s L2 self and contexts. Whilst the focus in this chapter is on the learner’s sense of self in relation to foreign language learning, aspects of the discussion apply similarly to teachers’, trainee teachers’ or teacher trainers’ sense of self — indeed, anyone involved in the wider undertaking of language education.