Identity, Motivation and Autonomy in Language Learning (Second Language Acquisition, 54)

In this volume researchers from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North and South America employ a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches in their exploration of the links between identity, motivation, and autonomy in language learning. On a conceptual level the authors explore issues related to agency, metacognition, imagination, beliefs, and self. The book also addresses practice in classroom, self-access, and distance education contexts, considering topics such as teachers’ views on motivation, plurilingual learning, sustaining motivation in distance education, pop culture and gaming, study abroad, and the role of agency and identity in the motivation of pre-service teachers. The book concludes with a discussion of how an approach which sees identity, motivation, and autonomy as interrelated constructs has the potential to inform theory, practice and future research directions in the field of language teaching and learning.

Garold Murray is associate professor in the Language Education Centre, Okayama University, Japan. His research employs ethnography and narrative inquiry to explore autonomy, metacognition, and community in relation to classroom, out-of-class, and self-access language learning.

Xuesong (Andy) Gao is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales. His current research interests are in the areas of learner autonomy, language learning narratives, language education policy, and language teacher education. He is co-editor of System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics.

Terry Lamb is Professor of Languages and Interdisciplinary Pedagogy at the University of Westminster, London, UK. His most recent book is Insights into Language Education Policies (ed. 2020, Peter Lang, with M. Jiménez Raya and B. Manzano Vázquez).