Exploring motivational surges among tertiary level L2 learners: Directed motivational currents in focus

Abstract

This study adds new empirical evidence on how commonly the Directed Motivational Current (DMC) phenomenon is recognized and experienced among tertiary level L2 learners. This study also investigated DMC manifestations across such demographic factors as gender and domain of study. To this end, in this quantitative study, the Turkish version of the DMC Disposition Scale (Muir, 2016), validated by the researchers through a confirmatory factor analysis and reliability checks, was administered to 1083 first-year EFL students pursuing a bachelor's degree at twelve different faculties of a state university in Turkey. The data were analyzed through chi-square analyses, t-tests, and analyses of variance. Of all participants, 20.8% (n = 224) reported having experienced DMCs either once or on multiple occasions. The responses of the DMC group corroborate previous assertions that DMC is a unique motivational phenomenon experienced by a minority of students rather than being a widely experienced phenomenon. However, when the nature of the context is considered, the number of true-DMCs is promising. Gender and domain of study were not found to affect the propensity to experience DMCs among tertiary level L2 learners. These results are discussed and implications for theory and practice are provided. © 2021 Editorial Board TESL - EJ. All rights reserved.