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1.
Introduction
In this paper I propose a research agenda for investigating language learning motivation through a more sharply focused lens than the empirical perspectives that have tended to prevail. To set the context for this agenda, I will begin by identifying three separate but broadly interrelated 'problems' in this field of research concerning (1) the limitations of motivation research in SLA, (2) the popularity of motivation as a student dissertation topic, and (3) the shortage of practitioner research on motivation.
1.1
The limitations of motivation research in SLA
In 2010 I published a paper (Ushioda 2010) in which I discussed the somewhat marginalized position of motivation research within the field of SLA. In general terms within this field, motivation is regarded as a prerequisite for successful language learning, as captured by Pit Corder's well-known statement dating back to the very early days of SLA research: 'given motivation, it is inevitable that a human being will learn a second language if he is exposed to the language data' (Corder 1967: 164). However, while motivation is widely recognized as a significant variable in successful language learning and a key factor that distinguishes first language acquisition from SLA processes, as Ellis (2008: 690) has remarked, 'the study of L2 motivation research continues to lie outside mainstream SLA'. This is despite the fact that, among individual difference characteristics in SLA, motivation research has steadily generated a very substantial body of theoretical and empirical literature for over 40 years (for recent state-of-the-art overviews, see Dörnyei & Ushioda 2011; Ushioda & Dörnyei 2012). As I discussed in my 2010 paper, a major reason why motivation research has remained somewhat isolated from the core linguistic traditions of the SLA field is because the analysis of motivation and its role in language learning has largely been at the level of global learning behaviours and L2 achievement outcomes, and motivation research has tended not to address more fine-grained processes of language acquisition or linguistic development. As a consequence, our research can shed relatively little light on how motivation may be relevant to internal processes of linguistic development or to the acquisition of specific features of the target language (with the possible exception of features of pronunciation - see, for example, Segalowitz,...