L2 Motivation

Having worked in Korea for a number of years and in a in a variety of contexts I was both impressed and intrigued by the markedly high levels of motivation and success I found amongst Korea’s military officers as compared to learners I encountered in the public school and private academy contexts. I wanted to take steps to distil the underlying causes such that they may be applied in the future to improve localised pedagogy. Being simultaneously a student of English language teaching and a professional in that field I became more and more convinced through interaction with the literature on L2 motivation that developments in the World Englishes faucet of academia were not being reflected in research; that in the minds of learners ‘English’ was now a ‘square peg’ that would not fit in the traditional ‘round hole’ of affective variables as employed in the Gardnerian tradition. I saw an opportunity to respond to recent calls within L2 motivation to conduct qualitative research in a truly unique environment where learners have been unambiguously successful.