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STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS AND THEIR EFFECT ON POSSIBLE
LANGUAGE 2 SELVES DEVELOPMENT AND LANGUAGE
LEARNING STRATEGIES

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STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS AND THEIR EFFECT ON POSSIBLE LANGUAGE
2 SELVES DEVELOPMENT AND LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES

By

Maria Villalobos-Buehner

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
In partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Educational Administration

2009

ABSTRACT

STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS AND THEIR EFFECT ON POSSIBLE LANGUAGE
2 SELVES DEVELOPMENT AND LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES

By
Maria Villalobos—Buehner

Each year numerous language learners decide to travel abroad in order to improve
their language skills. Many studies have investigated the linguistic and cultural gains that
those students acquired during their study abroad. However, little is known about how
these experiences inﬂuence the students’ learning motivation, development of learning
strategies, and future perceptions of themselves as language learners. The following study
explored the role of study abroad programs in the development of possible second or
foreign language selves and the effect of moving from a second language to a foreign
language context in the development of possible L2 selves. Twenty subjects took part in
the individual interviews and focus groups. This study employed qualitative data
techniques such as color-coding to analyze it. The results show that most of the subjects
held future images of themselves as language learners. Subjects with salient possible
language selves after their abroad experience were more motivated, and were able to use
multifarious language learning strategies in order to keep their language gains once they
were back from their abroad sojourn. These students were also able to overcome
obstacles easily by creating alternative approaches that helped them move towards the
achievement of their possible L2 selves. On the other hand, students with less salient
possible L2 selves aﬁer their abroad experience encountered difﬁculties maintaining their
possible L2 selves salient. Some students’ PLZSs disappeared from their working self-

concept. This study contributes to the development of a more holistic view of language

learning motivation. It also presents language educators with possibilities to enhance
language learning. Furthermore, universities and adult education institutions could
beneﬁt from the results of this study in order to create mechanisms to promote student

achievement and student retention.

Copyright by
MARIA VILLALOBOS-BUEHNER
2009

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This dissertation is dedicated to my loving husband Richard. I could not have
completed this major stepping stone in my life without his support. To my daughter
Chelsea who was very patient and whom I saw grow bigger each chapter I ﬁnished.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my committee
chair, Dr. Marilyn Amey, who believed in me from the ﬁrst time I visited her ofﬁce
inquiring about the program. Thank you for persevering with me as my advisor
throughout the time it took me to complete the research and write this dissertation. Your
leadership has been and will always be an inspiration for me.

I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Ann Austin, Dr. Patrick
Dickson and Dr. John Dirkx for their help during this research.

In addition, a thank you to the Modern Language Department and Literatures at
Grand Valley State University for helping me with my schedule so I could have time to

complete my dissertation.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix
KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. x
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. l
Origins of the Study ........................................................................................................ 1
Research Question .......................................................................................................... 4
Deﬁnition of Terms ......................................................................................................... 4
Organization of the Thesis .............................................................................................. 6
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................... 7
Study Abroad and Language Learning Research ............................................................ 7
Recent Studies of the Impact of Study Abroad on Language Learning and Cultural
Awareness ................................................................................................................... 8
Research on study abroad (SA) impact on language learning. ............................... 8
Student perceptions of the study abroad living and learning experience .............. 12
Shaping the Conceptual Framework: Research on Motivational Theories,
the “Possible selves”, and Student Engagement Constructs ......................................... 14
Motivational Theories ............................................................................................... 14
Adult learning motivation. .................................................................................... 15
Motivation in language learning. .......................................................................... 17
The Possible Selves Construct .................................................................................. 21
Research on possible selves and language learning motivation and
language identity. .................................................................................................. 28
Study Abroad and Student Involvement ................................................................... 33
CHAPTER 3
METHODS ....................................................................................................................... 37
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 37
Population ..................................................................................................................... 39
Setting ........................................................................................................................... 43
Data Collection ............................................................................................................. 44
Data analysis ................................................................................................................. 47
Credibility and Transferability of the Study ................................................................. 49
The Researcher .............................................................................................................. 49
Limitations to the Study ................................................................................................ 50

vi

CHAPTER 4

FINDINGS ........................................................................................................................ 52
LZSelf Availability and Goal Setting ............................................................................ 52
LZSelf Accessibility ...................................................................................................... 59
LZSelf and their Academic Self ..................................................................................... 65

Changes in their Role as Learners ............................................................................ 65
Learning Goals .......................................................................................................... 70
Challenges Related to the Type of Class Instruction ................................................ 72
Challenges Related to the Type of Class. ................................................................. 73
L2self and other Selves ................................................................................................. 75

CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................... 81
Goal Setting and L2 Self —Availability ......................................................................... 81
L2 Self —Accessibility ................................................................................................... 88
L2 Self and Academic Self ........................................................................................... 93
L2 Self and Other Selves ............................................................................................ 101
The L2 Motivational Self System ............................................................................... 106

CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................. 1 l3

APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 123
A. Survey Questions .................................................................................................. 123
B. Interview Protocol ................................................................................................. 124
C. Focus Group Protocol ........................................................................................... 126
D. Participant Consent Form For Study ..................................................................... 128
E. Letter Of Invitation To Participate In The Study To Potential Students. ............. 131
F. E-Mail Sent To Faculty Directors Of Study Abroad Programs ............................ 132
G. E-Mail Sent To Students Via Server Lists ............................................................ 133

BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................... l3 5

vii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Participants .................................................................................. 41
Table 2 Data Themes and Subthemes ............................................................ 48
Table 3 Possible L2 Selves Levels of Salience ................................................ 105

viii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Percentage of students abroad in non—English speaking countries ................ 40
Figure 2. Steve’s Motivational L2 Self System ................................................ 110
Figure 3. Katie’s Motivational L2 Self System ................................................ 111

ix

KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS

L2 — Second or Foreign Language

L2self— Language 2 self

IS — Ideal Self or Ideal Selves

ILZS- Ideal second or foreign language selves

PS — Possible Selves

PLZS — Possible Second or Foreign Language Selves

SA — Study Abroad

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Origins of the Study

Study abroad programs are becoming an essential component of a student's
college experience. According to the Open Doors 2007 report by the Institute of
International Education (IIE), the number of US. students going abroad for academic
credit increased by 8.5 percent in 2007-2008 to 241,791 from the previous year. Since the
academic year 1995/ 1 996, the number of US. students studying abroad has gone up by
almost 150%.

Students’ accounts state many positive outcomes from these programs. Some of
these are an increased intemationalist orientation, an enhanced knowledge of the world,
greater maturity, improved communication skills and life changing experiences
(Hulstrand, 2006; Ingram, 2005; Talburt & Stewart, 1999; Wilkinson, 2002). The ﬁeld of
language learning, in particular, has promoted study abroad as one of the best
opportunities to build, use, and improve foreign language skills outside the classroom
(Wilkinson, 2002). SA1 provides the opportunity to live the language and to engage in
meaningful and authentic communication in the target language and personal interactions
with native speakers (Pellegrino, 1998). Research has revealed that study-abroad
programs can enhance students' acquisition of a foreign language (Carroll 1967; Freed,
1995), improve their knowledge of the host culture, and even transform their worldviews

(Ingram, 2005).

 

1 SA is a short form for study abroad.

Various studies have concentrated on the impact of a study abroad experience on
a range of academic measures such as vocabulary and grammar acquisition, cultural
adjustment measures, and employability measures (Barker, 1985; Freed, 1995; Huebner,
1995). Much of the research done in the area of language learning focuses on how the
experience of studying abroad increases students’ cognitive knowledge of the language
and improves the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Yet, relatively little is
known about how this experience might have inﬂuenced the way students learn, their
second language goals and their perception of themselves as second language learners or
second language speakers that could demand a different educational approach once they
are back in order for them to maintain their language achievements and for this
experience to have long lasting gains.

Many students have expressed how the abroad sojourn helped them better
understand themselves as learners (Weltens & Grendel, 1993). Educators also declared
that SA students are more motivated and engaged in expanding and improving their
language knowledge when they return home: “they are more curious and more actively
involved in their learning process” (Gray et al., 2002, p.49). However, learners have
expressed concern about the possibility of losing the skills acquired during their
experience abroad after returning from their trip (Freed, 1998; Jimenez, 2004). Exploring
this area could inform curricula and classroom practices by highlighting the importance
of a strong connection between the experiences of studying abroad, the home curriculum,
and learner needs. There must be a link between them that ensure continuity and that
consider the study abroad experience part of the whole language learning process rather

than an isolated event in a student’s education. Not connecting the SA sojourn with a

student’s learning needs back home could promote attrition and even language loss. By
examining this connection, different institutions could offer more articulated and
accountable programs that could gain support from policy makers. Carl Herrin, a
Congressional lobbyist, insists that policy makers want to see results before apportioning
money to abroad programs. He said “If you give me a study that tells me about the impact
of study abroad, or how it works, or what makes it more effective, that informs in very
useful ways the arguments that one makes to policymakers about how programs ought to
be structured, whether or not they ought to be funded, if so at what level, and why they’re
ultimately valuable to the national interest” (Hulstrand, 2006, p.1). The following study
focused on the students’ motivation for and development of learning strategies after the
experience with the aim of maintaining language gains and increasing the ﬂuency
acquired during their experience abroad. This study also looked at changes in the
students’ self-perceptions as language learners after the experience.

This study contributed to a deeper understanding of the role of motivation and
possible L22 -self in the students’ development of learning strategies and their desire to
pursue further language learning. Markus and Nurius (1986) deﬁne “possible selves” as
representations of the self in the future that one could become or are afraid of becoming.
These possible selves are the cognitive components of hopes, fears, goals, and threats that
could help understand future behaviors. Greene and DeBacker (2004 in Leondari, 2007)
state that future time perspective can be a powerful motivator of current behavior. A
sense of purpose for the future is an important factor in moving individuals to engage in

activities perceived to be instrumental in achieving valued future outcomes (Simmons,

 

2 L2 means second or foreign language.

Dewitte, and Lens, 2000 in Leondari, 2007). To be primarily responsible for and in
control of one’s knowledge is critical to survival and prosperity in a world of continuous
personal, community, and societal changes (Caffarella, 1993).

Part of my interest is also in how the transition between second language contexts
to foreign language contexts affects motivation for language learning among students,
including engaging in continued language-related experiences. These questions help ﬂush

out deeper understanding of how students develop possible L2 selves.

Research Question
This research has a major research question and two sub questions that helped me
explore the role of the L2 self in the ﬁeld of language learning motivation.
How do students develop possible L2 selves?

1. What is the role of Study Abroad in the development of possible L2 selves?

2. What happens when they return from Study Abroad? What is the effect of moving
from a second language to a foreign language context in the development of
possible L2 selves?

This study contributed to the body of research on study abroad, language learning
and motivational theories by providing a more multidimensional picture of student

motivation and by focusing on the development of learning strategies used by students

after the study abroad experience in order to develop and retain language skills.

Deﬁnition of Terms

The following deﬁnitions and abbreviations help readers to understand the main
purpose of this research as well as its ﬁndings and its discussion sections:
SA; Study Abroad

Second or Foreign Language: it refers to a language different from the native one.

Second Language Acquisition: refers to the process of learning a language different from
the mother tongue in a country in which the target language is the ofﬁcial one. For
instance, if an English speaking student learns Spanish in Mexico, Spanish would be
considered his second language.

Foreign Language Acquisition: refers to the process of learning a language different from
the mother tongue in a country in which the target language is not the ofﬁcial one. For
instance, if an English speaking student learns Spanish in the United States, Spanish
would be considered his foreign language.

L_2:_This abbreviation refers to a second or a foreign language

Possible Selves: reﬂect the images, senses and thoughts people have about their future.
“Possible selves represent the individuals’ ideas of what they might become, what they
~ would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming” (Markus & Ruvolo, 1989,
p.212)

Possible L2 Selves: images, senses and thoughts people have about their second or
foreign language self in the future (Domyei, 2005).

Ideal L2 self: refers to the representation of the attributes that one would ideally like to
possess.

Ought L2 self: refers to the representation of attributes that one believes one ought to
possess as a L2 speaker.

Feared L2 Possible Self: refers to the representation of attributes one does not want to
possess as a second language speaker.

Integrativeness: the desire to learn an L2 of a valued community so that one can

communicate with members of the community and sometimes even become like them.

Organization of the Thesis

The following study consists of ﬁve chapters, the ﬁrst of which is this
Introduction Chapter. Chapter two contains the literature review for this study, which is
an examination of the development of motivational theory, the ideal L2 Self theory and
the student involvement theory as well as a description of the latest studies in the study
abroad ﬁeld based on those theories. Chapter three describes the methodology used. I
discuss and explain my research methods and the rationale behind the design of my
research instruments. This thesis was qualitative and used individual and focus group
interviews as primary sources for collecting data. In this chapter I explain some of the
major considerations affecting my approach and justify why this is a legitimate and
principled strategy. Chapter four presents the ﬁndings of this study, which are organized
in four major themes: ﬁrst, L2 self availability and goal setting before, during and after
the abroad experience; second, L2 self accessibility during and after the abroad
experience; third, the presence of L2selves and academic selves; fourth, the presence of
L2selves and other selves. Chapter ﬁve discusses and interprets those ﬁndings from an
L2 self perspective. Chapter six presents the conclusions, limitations of the study and
implications for future studies as well as some suggestions for practical uses of the L2
self theory in the classroom and other university areas to improve students’ motivation

and retention.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Study Abroad and Language Learning Research

The different studies in the area of foreign or second language learning and the
impact of study abroad programs on this area have been dominated by linguistic and
sociolinguistic approaches. However, very few have explored how abroad experiences
affect students’ motivation and the way they approach their learning. The following
chapter provides an inclusive description of the different types of research done in the
area of language learning, study abroad, language-learning motivation and the possible
selves construct. The purpose of this chapter is ﬁrst to position the following study within
the broad area of language learning and study abroad research, and second, to explain
how this study contributes to the expansion of research done in the area of language
learning motivation and student involvement.

This chapter is divided into two main sections. The ﬁrst section depicts the
diverse literature about language learning and study abroad, which is organized into two
general sub-sections. The ﬁrst sub-section reviews research that demonstrates the
linguistic gains of students after experiencing a sojourn abroad. These studies are mainly
quantitative and made use of test scores to measure these gains. The second sub-section
describes research that examined student perceptions of the study abroad living and
learning experience and the impact of this experience on cultural awareness skills. The
second section explores the different theories and studies that shape the conceptual
framework of the proposed study. This section is divided into three parts. The ﬁrst part

describes the investigations in the ﬁeld of motivation and language learning motivation.

The second part explores the research in the area of the possible self-theory and its role in
language learning motivation. The last part looks into different studies that address both

student engagement and study abroad experiences.

Recent Studies of the Impact of Study Abroad on Language Learning and Cultural

Awareness

The following segment of the literature review describes studies about language
improvement of explicit linguistic characteristics such as the acquisition of vocabulary
and grammatical structures aﬁer students come back from studying abroad. Then, it
describes the research that examine student perceptions of the sojourn abroad and its

impact on cross-cultural skills and global understanding.

Research on study abroad (SA) impact on language learning.

Research on the inﬂuence of study abroad in language acquisition is based on
studies that measure the development of language abilities such as oral proﬁciency,
sociolinguistic skills and literacy skills, among others (Freed, 1998). Carroll’s (1967)
study is one of the most widely cited because it relates to language proﬁciency gains
deriving from the study abroad experience. He looked at the foreign language proﬁciency
levels attained at the time of graduation by American college students who majored in
French, German, Italian, Russian, or Spanish. He found that for all of the variables
examined, the amount of time spent abroad was the strongest predictor of language gains
in all the skills. Carroll stated, “Time spent abroad is clearly one of the most potent
variables we have found... Even a tour abroad, or a summer school course abroad, is
useful, apparently, in improving the student’s skill” (p. 137). After this study, one can

ﬁnd a fair amount of research that corroborates the impact of study abroad on language

8

acquisition (Freed, 1995; Huebner, 1995; Lafford, 1995; Lisking-Gasparro & Urdaneta,
1995). These are mainly quantitative studies that have used the CPI3 (Oral Proﬁciency
Interview) assessment method to contrast pre and post program results in different areas
of language gains. Their results show signiﬁcant gains in listening, reading and speaking
after study abroad. Freed (1995) compared ﬂuency gains of 15 college students of French
and of a control group of 15 students in order to measure the impact of SA in the ﬂuency
or rate of speech. She used the OPI as the assessment method. This study shows that the
rate of speech was signiﬁcantly higher for the study abroad students than for the control
group. However, the results of this study are limited to American students, to one-
semester programs, and to short-term gains (Freed, 1998).

More recent studies have focused on speciﬁc linguistic features such as the use of
ﬁllers, modiﬁers, formulae and compensation strategies, and use diverse conceptual
frameworks. Isabelli (2001) measured the extent that the language learners’ internal
factors of linguistic universals are impacted by the external factor of input in the study-
abroad learning environment. According to Isabelli (Ibid.), research in second language
acquisition (SLA) has shown that second language (L2) learners draw on two types of
language sources when learning or acquiring an L2: an internal source, such as language
transferred from the learners’ ﬁrst language (L1), cognitive processes, and linguistic
universals; and an external source, such as social variables, input, and interaction.
Therefore, she decided to study three properties of the null subject parameter (N SP) that
are very common in the process of learning a second language: (a) missing subject

pronouns; (b) verb-subject inversion; and (c) that —trace ﬁlter violation. The subjects

 

3 The Oral Proﬁciency Interview — OPI- assesses oral proﬁciency in a modern language. It measures
language proﬁciency by identifying patterns of strengths and weaknesses in oral communication. The
speciﬁc aspects evaluated are: accent, grammar, vocabulary, ﬂuency, and comprehension.

9

were 31 American intermediate learners of Spanish during their one-year-study-abroad
stay in Spain. The control group consisted of 18 native Spanish speakers. The data were
collected before and after the study abroad from grammar judgment tests and oral
narratives. The statistical results showed that the learners improved on all three syntactic
properties of the NSP over the nine months.

Those studies mentioned are mainly quantitative and their results rely on test
scores. Most of this research demonstrates the linguistic advantages of a sojourn abroad.
However, there is a lack of longitudinal study of these gains over a long term period.
Longcope’s study (2003) tries to ﬁll this void by investigating long-term effects of study
abroad on second language (L2) learning. The results revealed that study abroad had no
long-term impact on any aspect of interlanguage“. He also found that the study abroad
context was more conducive to language learning than the pre-study abroad English as a
Foreign Language (EFL) context because learners had more contact with English and
because conditions such as negotiation for meaning were more available on an
interaction-by- interaction basis. However, this study lacks deep analysis of the results to
explain why the study abroad context was not conducive to long term results in language
learning.

Even though these studies prove the linguistic advantages of study abroad
experiences, little is known about speciﬁc qualitative changes in students’ language
proﬁciency (Freed, 1998) and language learning processes after the experience. One
study that is worth mentioning because it is an attempt to explain possible causes of

language attrition is J iménez’s (2004) research on the linguistic and psychological

 

4 lnterlanguage is a form of language typically produced by learners of a second language, which combines
elements of two or more languages.

10

dimensions of second language attrition during and after a study abroad experience. The
main purpose of this research was to explore an innovative approach to the study of
language attrition that links social participation to linguistic production and psychological
functioning. This study was carried out within a Sociocultural and Activity theoretical
framework and followed a longitudinal design. Jime’nez interviewed and collected written
and oral story narrations from ten L2 adult learners of Spanish who took part in a ﬁve-
month study abroad program. He interviewed them during and after the program for a
seven-month period. Jimenez collected information on types of Spanish mediated
activities and the amount of time spent on them after the study abroad experience in
Spain, divided the subjects into two groups- participants and non-participants-, and
performed a linguistic and psychological analyses. This study suggests that a higher level
of participation in Spanish mediated activities translates into an enhanced ability to
maintain self-regulation. It also shows that over time, those who did not maintain contact
with Spanish upon returning to the US had considerable problems maintaining self-
regulation during linguistic performance. However, it is important to mention that this
study used only two tasks, video-based storytelling and writing, and the results obtained

may be representative of only these two elicitation methods.

The present study delves deeper into the concepts of activity and participation
than the J iménez’s (2004) study, and it expands this body of research by using
engagement, the self and motivational theories as ways of looking at the types of
involvement in the development of language learning strategies after the experience
abroad. The results reveal new outcomes from the SA experience that could facilitate the

development of curricula and new pedagogies that support further language engagement

11

and motivation for achievement. In the next section, I address a more qualitative body of
research that delves into more personal accounts about the impact of the study abroad on
future goals and world perceptions that can be relevant to my topic of how these
experiences could shape future projections of the student’s L2 self.

Student perceptions of the study abroad living and learning experience.

This section describes research that is relevant to the present investigation and
that presents a view of the study abroad experience from the students’ perspective.
Research on this topic fell into these broad categories: race and gender identity,
professional and cross-cultural skills development, and student persistence.

Talburt and Stewart (1999) examined SA by exploring individual and curricular
implications of the potential for race and gender to affect profoundly students’ cultural
learning. They used semi-structured individual interviews of 6 students who described
and reﬂected on their experiences in Spain. These interviews show that peer groups
constitute sources of identity and cross-cultural understanding for students abroad.
Lindsey (2005) explores how a study abroad experience affected students with respect to
their personal and professional values. The author describes ﬁndings related to values
development from a larger qualitative study of how social work students perceive their
study abroad experience to affect them both personally and professionally. The ﬁndings
from this study indicate that study abroad may have an important role in fostering
appreciation of and commitment to professional social work values. This experience also
seemed to enhance students’ commitment to the integrity of the profession.

Hernandez De Santis (2004) examined the reﬂections of twelve American

exchange students who studied for one semester or an entire academic year in different

12

Mexican universities in order to show how these students’ academic and intercultural
experiences impacted their lives. She used interviews and journal entries as data
collection methods, and content analysis and the constant comparative method as the
analytical technique. The ﬁndings demonstrate important linguistic, cultural, academic
and professional impacts such as a development of intercultural sensitivities, a signiﬁcant
determinant in their career direction, and advancement to better job opportunities.

Other studies provide evidence on the impact of study abroad programs in the
development of cross-cultural skills (Armstrong, 1984; Black & Duhon, 2006; Dowell,
1996; Forgues, 2005; Wortman, 2002). Kitsantas (2004), for instance, examined the
broader impact that study abroad programs have on students’ cross-cultural skills and
global understanding and the effect that students’ goals have on these outcomes. Two
hundred and thirty two (N=232) students enrolled in study abroad courses took part in
this study and were administered the Cross-cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI) prior
to departure and after coming back from the experience. The results show that overall
students’ cross-cultural skills and global understanding improved, but students’ goals for
study abroad inﬂuenced the outcomes. Kitsantas’ study shows a strong correlation
between the interest of students in studying abroad in order to improve cross-cultural
competence before the experience and their achievement of higher levels of cross-cultural
skills after the experience. However, she does not explore the reasons for these outcomes.

Other research supports the effects of SA programs on study persistence (Young,
2003), students’ attitudes and behavior with regard to language learning (Armstrong,
1984; Chieffo & Grifﬁths, 2003; Teichler & Steube, 1991), and language retention

(Oxford, 1982; Tucker, Hamayan, & Genesee, 1976). However, there is a lack of studies

13

that examine students’ motivation and involvement in language learning beyond the
classroom after the study abroad experience. As described above, the majority of the
research done in the ﬁeld of language learning is quantitative and examines discrete
outcomes. The qualitative research takes place mainly during the study abroad or right
after coming back and focuses on students’ recounts of their experiences and assessment
of cross-cultural skills. This study helps to provide a more multidimensional picture of
the students’ language learning involvement after returning from the abroad sojourn and
of the development of strategies that could help students retain what they accomplished
aﬁer the experience. The present study examines the development of strategies from
motivational and student involvement theoretical perspectives and from the possible
selves construct. The combination of these three constructs can provide a more
comprehensive explanation of the students’ decisions, attitudes and actions to further

engage in language learning aﬁer the abroad experience.

Shaping the Conceptual Framework: Research on Motivational Theories, the “Possible
selves and Student Engagement Constructs

Motivational Theories

Motivation has been considered a signiﬁcant construct in an individual’s learning
development that people would like to predict but as Wlodkowski (1999) points out,
motivation as a way to explain why people do what they do or behave as they do “evades
any simple explanation or prescription” (p. 1 ). In the ﬁeld of education, motivation has
been considered a vital ingredient of learning; therefore, one can ﬁnd a large body of
research. For the purpose of this study, I brieﬂy describe the motivational research done
in the ﬁeld of adult learning, and I focus on the motivational research done in the ﬁeld of
language learning.

14

Adult learning motivation.

The literature in adult learning motivation is very extensive and diverse. One of
the ﬁrst studies that tries to simplify the types of adult motivational orientation of
participation is Houle’s (1961). He conducted a series of 2-hour interviews with about 25
residents of the Chicago area from different socioeconomic backgrounds, ages, gender
and marital statuses. He found that his interviewees held three learning orientations: the
goal-oriented student that sees learning as an opportunity to get ahead; the activity
oriented student that is in the search of social stimulation, and the learning-oriented
student that is addicted to learning (Dollisso & Martin, 1999). One of the many critiques
is that his classiﬁcation lacks statistical respectability and it is very simplistic. However,
Houle makes clear that this was a pilot study that so frequently precedes more ambitious,
comprehensive and rigorous examination (Whipple & Williams, 1963). Other studies
have tried to classify adult motivational desires in different categories such as the desire
to know, to reach a social goal, to reach a religious goal (Burgess, 1971) and to gain skills
(Oaklief & Oaklief, 1982). Other studies have classiﬁed adult learning motivation in
different factors such as internal ones (Knowles, 1984) and practical, applied and
instrumental ones in order to adapt to a changing environment (J ohnstone & Rivera,
1965; Mezirow, 1985).

Another common thread in the literature concerning adult motivation is the
importance to respond to the adult learners’ needs, interests and culture in order to
establish conditions to enhance learning experiences and to maintain motivation. One of
the most inﬂuential pieces of work in human needs is Maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of

human needs, which he divides into deﬁciency and growth. According to Maslow, an

15

individual is ready to act upon the growth needs (self actualized and self-transcendent) if
and only if the deﬁciency needs are met; as one becomes more self-actualized and self-
transcendent, one gets wiser. Bandura (1994) stated that people with high conﬁdence in
their capabilities approach difﬁcult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as
threats to be avoided.

Wlodkowski (1999) offers a model of teaching and learning that values
motivation and culture to promote extensive learning. The Motivational Framework for
Culturally Responsive Teaching is a systemic representation of intersecting motivational
conditions that teachers and learners can construct and enhance. These conditions are:
establishing an inclusive learning atmosphere, free of anxiety; developing a favorable
attitude toward the learning experience through personal relevance and choice; enhancing
meaning by creating challenging learning experiences that include learners’ point of
views and values; and engendering competence by creating an understanding that
learners are effective in learning something they value (Wlodkowski, 1999).

Keller’s (1999) ARCS model is another approach to address the challenge of
stimulating and maintaining learners’ motivation. He offers four categories of
motivational concepts that help analyze the motivational characteristics of a group of
students and help in the design of strategies to enhance motivation. The steps are to gain
the leamer’s attention, to build relevance of the strategy in the student’s life, to promote
the leamer’s conﬁdence in the attainment of learning goals, and to encourage the
leamer’s intrinsic feelings of satisfaction.

The previously cited studies look at motivation from a goal-oriented standpoint

and offer some models to enhance adult learning motivation. The present work

16

contributes to this body of research by looking at adult motivation from a future
perspective, in order to provide a more holistic view of the motivational construct. As
formerly stated, the literature about adult motivation is very varied. There are more works
that could be mentioned in this section but I have cited the most relevant ones to this
study.

Motivation in language learning.

As one can see, motivation is a complex construct to deﬁne but one cannot deny
its importance in language learning because it not only helps determine the level of
involvement in learning (Okada, Oxford & Abo, 2003) but motivation helps maintain the
students’ language ability beyond the classroom (Gardner, Lalonde, Moorcroft, & Evers,
1985 in Okada et al., 2003). Gardner (2001) stated that this construct encourages greater
effort on the part of the learner and thus, greater success in language performance. He
afﬁrms that language-learning strategies probably will not be used if the individual is not
motivated to learn the language. One of the most cited theories in language learning
motivation is Gardner’s (1988) socio-educational model of language acquisition. His
model makes a distinction between two classes of motivational orientations: integrative
and instrumental (Gardner, 2001; Schmidt, Boraie, & Kassabgy, 1996). The instrumental
orientation results from recognition of the practical advantages of learning such as
academic achievement or economic and social advancement. An integrative orientation is
identiﬁed when learners state that they want to learn a foreign language in order to
interact with the other community (Schmidt, Boraie, & Kassabgy, 1996). According to
Masgoret and Gardner (2003), individuals who want to identify with the other language

group will be more motivated to learn the language than individuals who do not.

17

A critique of Gardner’s conclusion is that the majority of his studies were done in
Canada, which is a bilingual country (Dornyei, 1990) and therefore, it offers the
advantage of second language contexts in which subjects have more regular contact with
the target language community. Domyei (1990) argues, “Foreign language learners often
have not had enough contact with the target language community to form attitudes about
them” (p.69) and that students often learn a foreign language for purely practical reasons;
therefore, an instrumental motive would be more likely to lead to successful learning of
the language.

In continuing the attempt to depict the complexity of motivation, Crookes and
Schmidt (1991) suggest an expanded deﬁnition of L2 learning motivation “in terms of
choice, engagement, and persistence” (p. 502). They state that motivation to learn a
language has both internal and external features. Their motivational structure includes
four internal attitudinal factors such as interest in the L2 based on experiences, relevance,
expectancy of success or failure and outcomes or rewards. It also includes external or
behavioral characteristics such as the student’s decision to engage in L2 learning, the
student’s perseverance, and the student’s maintenance of high activity level.

Domyei (1994a) stresses that many aspects of L2 motivation do not neatly ﬁt into
earlier paradigms. He suggests additional components such as intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation, goal setting, and cognitive components such as self-efﬁcacy, self-
conﬁdence, need for achievement, and course speciﬁc, teacher speciﬁc and group
speciﬁc components (Oxford, 1996). Ryan (2006) points out that motivation and
individuals are not ﬁxed, and that motivation changes over time and in response to

interactions with others and the target language. Domyei (2001) offers a model that

18

explains the temporal variation of motivation and adds to its dynamic character already
indicated above. He states that learners could experience a dramatic variation in their
motivation over a longer period of time and in order to capture this variation, he proposes
to adopt a process-oriented approach that can consider the changes of motivation over
time. This approach has three stages; preactional, actional and postactional stage. The
preactional stage is when the motivation needs are generated and the individual selects
the goals or tasks to be pursued. The actional stage is when the motivation needs are
actively maintained. The postactional stage is when after an action is completed; the
individual makes a retrospective evaluation on how things went. Even though this model
helps to think about motivation as a construct that can change over-time, it provides a
very linear representation that perceives every motivated individual as a self-directed
learner.

Domyei’s (1990) study was among the ﬁrst ones to attempt broadening Gardner’s
integrativeness orientation. He conducted research among 134 Hungarian learners of
English to investigate the difference between motivation in foreign language learning and
a second language acquisition environment. The results from a questionnaire indicated
that the motivation at an intermediate level was instrumental and at a higher level,
motivation was integrative. He questioned the applicability of the concept of
integrativeness in foreign learning contexts where learners of a target language have little
direct contact with an L2 community. After Domyei’s research numerous studies echoed
his concerns (Dbrnyei & Csizér, 2002; McClelland, 2000).

Noels, Pelletier, Clement and Vallerand (2003) tried to expand Gardner’s

_ instrumental and integrative orientation by considering how intrinsic and extrinsic

19

motivation might inform the understanding of motivation. They describe intrinsic
motivation (IM) as the reason “to engage in an activity because that activity is enjoyable
and satisfying to do” (p.38). Extrinsically motivated (EM) behaviors, on the other hand,
are actions accomplished in order to achieve some instrumental end, such as getting a
good grade or avoiding a penalty. This study suggests that those who naturally enjoy the
feeling of learning an L2 may not necessarily feel personally involved in the learning
process; “they may view language learning as a puzzle or a language game that has few
repercussions in everyday life” (p.53). It points out that low perception of freedom of
choice and perceived competence are also indicative of higher levels of amotivation.
Finally, this research found out that the more internalized the reason for L2 learning, the
more comfortable and persevering students claimed to be. Noels et al. suggest that
students who learn an L2 in an autonomy-supportive environment where feedback
enhances their sense of competence in the learning task are likely to be those students
who learn because it appeals to their self-concept. This study contributes towards a more
comprehensive conceptualization of motivation and emphasizes the importance of
learners’ effort and achievement in the L2.

Domyei and Csizér’s (2002) study contributes to the multidimensional picture of
the relationship between motivation and learning outcomes achievement by looking at
motivation as a concept that explains why people behave as they do rather than how
successful their behavior will be. They surveyed 8,593 pupils of 13 or 14 years of age
twice, in 1993 and in 1999, to examine attitudinal/motivational factors in light of two
criterion measures related to motivated language behavior: (a) the students’ language

choice for future L2 studies, and (b) the amount of effort the students intend to exert on

20

learning a given language. The researchers found that “these two measures are central
concepts in motivation research because they concern the two main aspects of motivated
human behavior, its direction and its magnitude” (p.2). They also mentioned the
possibility of looking at integrativeness within the larger framework of the Ideal Self or
The Ideal L2 Self (Markus & Nurios, 1986) in order to provide integrativeness with a
broader sense that could explain its superior position in diverse learning contexts.
Domyei and Csizér claim that if one’s ideal self is associated with being proﬁcient in L2,
then the student’s motivation can be described as having an integrative disposition.
Dbmyei and Csizér propose to redeﬁne L2 motivation “as the desire to achieve one’s
ideal language self by reducing the discrepancy between one’s actual and ideal L2
selves” (p.12). The present study contributes to this new research trend by exploring the
inﬂuence of study abroad language programs in the development of an ideal L2 Self and
its impact on the students’ integrative or instrumental motivation in the development of
learning strategies. Since SA programs offer the opportunity for a learner to move from a
second language context back into a foreign language context, it sheds light about the

types of motives that might encourage students to engage in further language learning.

The Possible Selves Construct

To move beyond motivational and attitudinal questionnaires and to personalize
motivation, researchers look at the individual’s psychosocial and sociocultural
development as important factors‘in one’s motivation (Syed, 2001). The social cognitive
research has focused on one’s idea of oneself in the future and suggests that people
expect likely outcomes of prospective actions; they set goals for themselves and plan

courses of actions to achieve hoped futures; “They motivate themselves and guide their

21

actions anticipatorily through the exercise of forethought” (Bandura, 1988, p.37). Having
a sense of purpose for the future is an important factor in moving individuals to engage in
activities perceived instrumental in achieving valued future outcomes (Leondari, 2007).
Some theorists conceptualize this orientation to the future as the Future Time Perspective
construct (FTP) which is understood as the mental representation of the ﬁiture that
individuals create at certain points in their lives (Hoyle & Sherrill, 2006; Lens, 2001;
Leondari, 2007). Leondari (2007) asserts that the FTP provides the basis for setting
personal goals and life plans that may affect the individual’s life course and it could
inﬂuence how far into the future a possible self can be projected. For Markus and Ruvolo
(1989), needs and goals are fundamental elements of the self-system and in order to
understand their functioning, one must look into the self-system.

According to Crookes and Schmidt (1991), students’ expectations of self and self-
evaluations of likelihood of success appear to have important motivational effects and it
is this concept of the self that has been the focus of recent research in learning
motivation. One self-construct that is spearheading this trend is Markus and Nurius
(1986)’s possible self. They deﬁne “Possible selves” as individuals’ ideas of what they
might become, what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming.
They explain that an individual is free to create a variety of possible selves but only those
linked to the individual’s particular socio-cultural and historical contexts and social
experiences are the most signiﬁcant and the most likely to occur. For Ryan (2006) the
‘selt’ perspective offers the possibility of a more rounded, more complete description of
learning motivation. “Instead of describing motivation in terms of a desire to integrate

externally, this model is based on the learner as a social being, as a real member of an

22

imagined community attempting to square hopes and aspirations with perceived
responsibilities and obligations as members of a community” (p.40).

Other research explores how possible selves may inﬂuence ongoing performance
or behavior in different areas, in school, at work, in the streets or along a life span.
Ruvolo and Markus (1992), using a guided imagery task, attempted to activate either
positive or negative possible selves in the working self-concept of ninety-one
undergraduate women. The goal of this study was to determine whether the enhanced
performance accompanying success imagery was a consequence of imagining one’s own
success in general, or of imagining success as a direct result of one’s own efforts.
Subjects were told to “imagine themselves in the future” and then were given one of four
different descriptions of this future:

(a) Success Work: everything had gone well because they worked hard and

succeeded in achieving their goals.

(b) Success Luck: everything had gone well and they were very fortunate and had

some ‘lucky breaks’ along the way.

(c) Failure Work: everything had gone badly and they had worked very hard but

failed to achieve their goals.

(d) Failure Luck: they had been very unlucky and had some ‘bad breaks’ along

the way.

Their study showed that the subjects in the success-work condition worked much
longer on the persistence task than did the failure subjects. Furthermore, respondents in
the success work conditions were signiﬁcantly faster than the failure work group to say

“yes, it is possible for me” to be prestigious, successful etc. These subjects were also

23

faster to say “no, it is not possible for me” to be a failure, lazy etc. Ruvolo and Markus
(1992) concluded that those in the success-work condition had working self-concepts that
were dominated by positive possibility. In contrast, those who were focused on future
failure were probably consumed by conceptions or images of negative possible selves.
Cross and Markus (1991) designed a study in order to examine the nature of possible
selves at various points in the life span. They found that the respondents between the ages
of 18 and 86 were able to generate hoped-for and feared possible selves that they could
describe vividly and speciﬁcally. Cross and Markus suggested that representations of the
self in future states may be indeed relatively accessible features of the self-knowledge
repertoire.

Other studies explored possible selves as self-regulators in professional domains
and academic achievement. For instance, Inglehart, Markus, and Brown (1989)
hypothesized that possible selves focus actions in the pursuit of the desired end state and
that they energize a person to persist in the activities necessary to achieve a goal. They
found that the more students focus on medicine as a career (in their study), the better they
did academically than those students that had two or three possible professional selves.
Additionally, they found that students who saw medicine as the most satisfying career
before entering the program did better academically than those students who saw it as a
satisfying career. Another study that looked at the relation between possible selves and
academic performance and motivation was Leondari, Syngollitou, and Kiosseoglou’s
(1998) study. Their assumption was that envisioning a desired end-state produces
information processing favoring the desired state and, as a consequence, the action seems

more likely and people are able to construct more efﬁcient plans. They hypothesized that

24

academic performance is best for subjects who are able to produce well-elaborated, vivid
pictures of future selves. Their statistical analysis showed that those who endorsed
speciﬁc elaborated positive selves outperformed the other groups in academic
achievement. There was also indication that this group of students showed more
persistence on task. Other studies conﬁrmed the inﬂuence of possible selves in students’
self-regulation in order to attain academic and professional outcomes (Lee & Oyserman,
2007; Oyserman, Bybee, Terry & Hart- Johnson’s, 2004). Moreover, Oyserman, Bybee
and Terry’s (2006) study looked at possible selves among low-income and minority
teens. The researchers hypothesized that academic possible selves (APSs) alone are not
enough unless linked with plausible strategies, made to feel like “true” selves and
connected with social identity. They found out that when APSs are linked with strategies
to achieve them, students were successful in moving toward APSs goals. The subjects’
grades and depression levels improved and in school misbehavior and absences declined.
Other studies address the importance of balance among one’s possible selves. For
instance, Oyserman and Markus (1990) conducted semi-structured interviews with 238
youth who varied in their degree of delinquency from no ofﬁcial involvement with
delinquency to those conﬁned to the state training school for delinquent youth. They
hypothesized that becoming involved and staying involved in delinquency reﬂects a lack
of balance among one’s possible selves and thus a lack of speciﬁc motivational control
over one’s actions. The researchers asked these youth to describe three “expected” selves
and three “feared selves” for next year. A pair of responses was considered “in balance”
if the expected self and the feared self represented a positive and a negative aspect of the

same content area. For instance, an expected self of “pass ninth grade” might be paired

25

with a feared self of “ﬂunk out of school”. Their results showed that over 81% of the
public school respondents had at least one clear match between their feared possible
selves and their expected possible selves. The number of matches was fewer among the
other more ofﬁcially delinquent groups. Furthermore, youth who lacked balance in their
possible selves subsequently reported higher levels of delinquent behavior than youth
whose possible selves contained some balance. Norman and Aron’s (2003) study
examined the motivational impact of hope for and feared possible selves in the attainment
or avoidance of possible selves. In a sample of 116 participants, motivation to attain or
avoid an important possible self was signiﬁcantly predicted by its availability (when a
possible self can easily be pictured or constructed), its accessibility (when a possible self
can be brought into awareness) and the extent to which its attainment or avoidance is
perceived as under one’s control (the degree to which individuals believe their behaviors
can inﬂuence the attainment or avoidance of a possible self).

As described earlier, most of the possible selves’ research to date focused
speciﬁcally on young learners. In an attempt to expand the PS construct into adult
learning and adult education, Rossiter (2007) designed a study to gain deeper
understanding of the impact of educational helping relationships on adult students’ range
of possible selves. It suggests three primary interfaces between adult learners’
interactions with educational helpers (teachers, mentors, and advisers) and their positive
selves. The investigator reported that educational helping relationships can be the source
of new positive possible selves for adult students through comments or suggestions for
possible futures. For instance, one student explained how one of her teachers introduced

her to the possibility of becoming an audiologist. Another ﬁnding was that educational

26

relationships function as the context within which adult learners’ existing positive
possible selves can be elaborated, detailed, and more fully developed. For example, one
student considered his future as a high school science teacher because of experiences in
his science class and admiration to his science teacher. A third ﬁnding is that educational
relationships strengthen conﬁdence and efﬁcacy beliefs in relation to positive possible
selves for adult learners. For instance, a student in this study began to envision a Pd.D.
possible self due to the encouragement of a professor. The positive and practical feedback
from a trusted teacher or mentor is a potent force in strengthening that sense of efﬁcacy
for an adult learner. Rossiter (2007) considers the possible selves perspective as an
unfolding story in which the development and elaboration of possible selves is a process
of self-storying that could help us understand adult learner motivation and persistence.
Other works offer different approaches based on the possible self—construct that

could help enhance performance and motivation. For instance, Plimmer and Schmidt
(2007) offer a ﬁve-step approach that adult educators can employ in order to facilitate the
development of positive new possible selves and their beneﬁts to performance and
motivation.

1) Encourage narratives in which the students can explore where they have been and

where they are going in order to identify possible selves.

2) Suggest potential career opportunities and recognize an individual’s potential.

3) Help adult students ﬁnd the ﬁt between their possible selves and career options.

4) Develop vivid representations of the self through mental imagery or mental

rehearsal.

27

5) Develop positive pathways by setting goals for information seeking or goals to

measure.

The cited literature on possible selves afﬁrms that having a sense for the future is
conducive to attainment of valued future outcomes. Furthermore, the presence of
elaborate and vivid possible selves can energize people’s efforts to achieve desired
objectives.

Research on possible selves and language learning motivation and language
identity.

The majority of the research using the self-construct has been done in the area of
social work. Only recently is this approach being developed in other areas. In the area of
language learning, Dbmyei (1994b) spearheaded this new direction of research in
language learning motivation as a response to the ongoing debate about integrative
motivation. During the last decade Gardner’s integrative concept has been at the center of
debate in the area of language learning motivation research because of his basic premise.
It claims that the L2 learner “must be willing to identify with members of another ethno
linguistic group and take on very subtle aspects of their behavior” in order to acquire a
second language (Gardner & Lambert, 1972, p.135). Dbmyei (2005) stated that the
integrative concept only applied to contexts of second language learning where the target
community surrounds the students. He added that this concept falls short in contexts
where the target language is learned far from the community that speaks it. Therefore, he
included the possible selves construct as important to understanding and to deepening the
concept of Gardner’s (1973) integrative motivation and as a way to rethink this
integrative concept. deyei and Csizér (2002) claimed that the integrative concept

would be “better explained as an internal process of identiﬁcation within the person’s

28

self-concept, rather than identiﬁcation with an external reference group” (Domyei, 2009,
p.3). Dbmyei (2009) offers a model that deﬁnes the main source of language learning’
motivation as the successful engagement with the actual language learning process rather
than with internally or externally generated self-images. He proposed that the L2
Motivational Self System consisted of three components:

(1) Ideal L2Seljf which is the L2-speciﬁc facet of one’s ‘ideal self’. He said “if the
person we would like to become speaks an L2, the ideal L2 self is a powerful
motivator to learn the L2 because of the desire to reduce the discrepancy between
our actual and ideal selves”. (p.29)

(2) Ought-to LZSelf, which concerns the attributes that one believes one ought to
possess to meet expectations and to avoid possible negative outcomes.

(3) L2 Learning Experience, which concerns situated, ‘executive’ motives related to
the immediate learning environment and experience (e. g., the impact of the
teacher, the curriculum, the peer group, the experience of success).

He also offers a set of motivational techniques associated to this self-based approach
model that language educators can use in order to promote motivation. He said that the
Ideal L2 Self is an effective motivator if the learner has a desired future self-image that is
elaborate and vivid, and is perceived as plausible and in harmony with the expectations of
the learner’s family, peers and other elements of the social environment. Furthermore, the
Ideal L2 Self must be regularly activated in the leamer’s working concept and
accompanied by relevant and effective procedural strategies that act as roadmaps towards

the goal. Finally, this Ideal L2 Self must contain elaborate information about the negative

29

consequences of not achieving the desired end-state. Therefore, a language educator
could encourage motivation by following these steps:

(1) Creating the vision: The ﬁrst step in a motivational intervention is to help learners
construct their Ideal L2 Self through ideal-self generating activities and through
role models of successful L2 learning achievers.

(2) Strengthening the vision: to promote ideal L2 self images using creative or guided
imagery in order to help students elaborate in a vivid fashion those ideal L2
selves.

(3) Substantiating the vision: to make the Ideal L2 Self plausible. Domyei suggests
that in order for an Ideal L2 self to sustain behavior; it must hold a sense of
realistic expectations.

(4) Keeping the vision alive: to activate the Ideal L2 Self through classroom activities
such as communicative tasks, ﬁlms, guests that could serve as potent ideal self-
reminders.

(5) Operationalising the vision: to develop action plans for the ideal self to be
effective in motivating the language learner. A successful action plan will contain
a goal-setting component and individualized study plans and instructional
avenues.

(6) Counterbalancing the vision: to consider failure. Future self-guides are most
effective if they are offset by the feared self and utilize the cumulative impact of
both approach and avoid tendencies (Domyei, 2009; Oyserman & Markus, 1990).
Over the past three years a number of quantitative studies have been developed to

speciﬁcally test and validate the L2 Motivational Self-System. Taguchi, Magid and Papi

30

(2009) designed a comparative motivational study in order to validate Domyei’s L2
Motivational Self System in three Asian contexts: Japan, China and Iran. They looked at
the two types of instrumentality in Domyei’s (2005) L2 Motivational Self System in
order to draw their conclusions. The ﬁrst is called instrumentality-promotional and it
relates to the ideal L2 self as it regulates goals and hopes of becoming professionally and
personally successful in the L2. The second type is instmmentality-preventional and it
relates to the ought-to L2 self as it controls negative outcomes associated with the duties
and obligations individuals perceive they have toward others. Five thousand participants
answered a questionnaire that measured the learner’s attitudes and motivation concerning
English learning. They hypothesized that if learners have a strong ideal L2 self, this will
be reﬂected in their positive attitudes toward language learning and they will exhibit
greater efforts to learn that target language. Their results indicate that the ideal L2 self
achieved a better explanatory power toward learners’ intended efforts that integrativeness
did. One signiﬁcant cross cultural difference was that in the Japanese model, the impact
from attitudes to L2 culture and community on the ideal L2 self is nearly twice as large as
from instrumentality-promotion, where as in the Chinese and the Iranian data the
contribution of the two aspects is roughly equal.

Another quantitative research that tried to provide empirical support for the theory
of the L2 Motivational Self System was Csizér and Kormos’ (2009) study. Their aim was
to investigate the role of the ideal and ought-to L2 selves as well as L2 learning
experience in two language learner populations who study English in a single context,
Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. They compared how the motivational and

attitudinal dispositions of secondary school pupils and university students differed. Their

31

ﬁndings show that both in the case of secondary school and university students,
motivated learning behavior was partly determined by the ideal L2 self, that is, the extent
to which students could imagine themselves as competent language users in the future.
They also found that other important determinants of language learning effort was the
dimension of language learning experiences, the effect of which was found to be stronger
than that of the ideal L2 self in the case of secondary school students, while for university
students the ideal L2 self and language learning experiences played an equally important
role. Their ﬁndings show that the ought-to L2 self seemed to be marginal, as its
contribution to shaping students’ learning behavior was weak and reached the level of
signiﬁcance only for the university student population. F urtherrnore, their study shows
that how students see themselves as future language users might change with age, and
therefore the impact of future self images on motivated learning might also vary.

As previously stated, the majority of the research is quantitative. However, there
are a few qualitative studies in the area of possible selves and language learning. One
relevant to this study is Kim’s (2009). She explored the nature and interrelationship
between ideal L2 self and ought-to L2 self by analyzing two adult Korean English as
second language (ESL) students’ L2 learning experiences. Joon and Woo were males in
their mid- 20’s who travelled to Toronto for the purpose of learning English. According
to the data, Joon’s goals for learning English were to get a job in Korea and to socialize
with members of L2 communities. His communication in L2 contexts was diverse. Woo’s
goal for learning English was to work at a steel company in South Korea in the future.
Kim collected data from four sources: interviews, ESL classroom observations, picture-

cued recall tasks, and language learning autobiographies. She found that instrumentality,

32

or pragmatic orientations, in learning an L2 can be merged into either the ideal L2 self or
the ought-to L2 self, depending on the degree of internationalization. Another ﬁnding
was that the leamer’s ideal L2 self needs to be aligned to the learner’s life experiences in
a variety of communities in order to support a positive, competent, and promotion-based
future L2 self-image.

The Possible Selves construct in language learning is a new development and
there is still a need for more research. The majority of the studies in possible L2 selves
and language learning are quantitative, and their population is mainly high school
students. Very few studies include university students and adult learners. So far, none of
the studies have been carried out with American students and in a combination of settings
such as different countries. The present study can help expand this body of research by
incorporating several elements that have not been considered before such as a variety of
contexts in the ideal L2 self development, the impact of study abroad programs in the
development of ideal L2 selves, having American university students as a population and
the development of a qualitative study that could help expand the pieces of research
already done in this area.

Study Abroad and Student Involvement

One of the theories that focus on student motivation and behavior is Astin’s
(1999) theory of student involvement. It states that students who get involved in both the
academic and social aspects of the collegiate experience enhance their chances of
persistence. It posits that students play an integral role in determining their own degree of
involvement in college classes, extracurricular activities and social activities. The more

quality resources available, the more likely students who are involved will grow.

33

However, Astin also states that by simply exposing the student to a particular program
without eliciting sufﬁcient student effort and investment of energy may not bring about
the desired learning and development. He afﬁrms that “the effectiveness of any
educational policy of practice is directly related to the capacity of that policy or practice
to increase student involvement” (Astin, 1999, p.519).

Astin’s involvement theory afﬁrms that the amount of physical and psychological
effort a student invests in a program is directly proportional to the quality of involvement
that student will experience in that program. He states that different students manifest
different degrees of involvement at different times. Astin asserts “the effectiveness of any
educational policy or practice is directly related to the capacity of that policy or that
practice to increase student involvement” (p.512).

Astin’s theory informs my study and helps toward the development of my
conceptual framework because it emphasizes active participation of the student in the
learning process, which is relevant to the development of this thesis. The combination of
the involvement theory and the “possible selves” construct could provide a more holistic
view to the instrumental and integrativeness motivation from Gardner’s (2001)
motivational theory that may offer better explanations of the intricate phenomenon of
learner’s'behavior and motivation. Furthermore, student involvement theory can assist
my study in suggesting institutional practices to design more effective learning
environments for student engagement beyond the classroom. It allows me to propose
changes to the different curricula and programs in order to increase participation that

could result in long lasting learning.

34

There is a dearth of research that explores Astin’s (1999) theory in a study abroad
context, although Crust’s 1998 study attempted to apply the Theory of Student
Involvement to an academic experience in an overseas setting. The purpose of this study
was to determine whether or not environmental and involvement factors were similarly
interactive in a foreign setting as they were in a domestic setting. Crust used data
collected from the program evaluations of 79 students who participated in the Oregon
University System exchange program in Lyon, France during a ﬁve-year period. Students
were asked about the relationships that existed between pairs of the following six student
engagement factors: extracurricular involvement, overall program satisfaction, housing
satisfaction, residence hall satisfaction, academic achievement, and language level. It
only found one signiﬁcant result, that the relationship between extracurricular
involvement and language level is not independent. Students in the higher language level
group (Direct Exchange) were more involved in extracurricular activities than were the
lower language level group of students that stayed at their home institution. The number
of signiﬁcant ﬁndings for this study is very low. My study contributes to increasing this
body of research by using the students’ own voices to attain deeper insights about student
involvement after the experience abroad and its possible causes or reasons. Furthermore,
exploring opportunities for students’ further engagement could inform other universities

about programs to provide support for past, present and future study abroad students.

In sum, on one hand, most of the research on study abroad and language learning
has concentrated on measuring linguistic and cultural gains. On the other hand, the
research on language motivation has taken place mainly in bilingual contexts where the

language learners have access to the target community. Motivating oneself to maintain

35

the linguistic and cultural gains acquired abroad is equally important to the acquisition of
these gains mainly in foreign language contexts. Therefore, the following study
contributes to broaden the ﬁeld of language learning motivation research by looking at
how abroad experiences could enhance language learning motivation in contexts where
the target community is not as accessible. Using possible selves, an aspect of the self-
concept that represents how one can be in the future, this study looked at the role of study
abroad in the development of these possible selves during and after the experience and

their effect in language learning.

36

CHAPTER THREE

METHODS
Introduction

The purpose of this study was to explore the development of possible L2 selves in
students who have been abroad and the effect of these selves on language learning
motivation and learning strategy design. This study has a major research question and
two sub questions that helped me explore the role of the L25 self in the ﬁeld of language
learning motivation:

How do students develop possible L2 selves6?

1. What is the role of Study Abroad in the development of possible L2 selves?

2. What happens when they return from Study Abroad? What is the effect of moving
from a second language to a foreign language context in the development of
possible L2 selves?

These questions help ﬂush out deeper understanding of how students develop
possible L2 selves. Part of my interest is also in how the transition between second
language contexts to foreign language contexts affects motivation for language learning
among students, including engaging in continued language-related experiences.

I used a qualitative research design to gain insights into the various possible
inﬂuences on involvement for language retention or language development as well as to
understand how SA experiences shape the L2 learner. A qualitative design allowed me to

hear directly from the subjects about their lived experiences and perceptions.

 

5 Second or foreign language

6 . . . . , . . . .
Possrble selves represent an indivrdual 5 Ideas of what one might become. For this study, It represents the
individual’s ideas of oneself as a L2 learner or as a L2 speaker in the future.

37

Furthermore, it enabled me ﬁrst, to develop a deeper level of detail in order to answer the
proposed research questions (Creswell, 2003) and second, a deeper understanding about
language learning motivation from a possible self-perspective through the use of a case
study approach.

This study consisted of individual open-ended interviews and a focus group that
helped provide data triangulation about the type of involvement, its possible reasons, and
particular experiences that facilitated further engagement and the development of
possible L2 selves. The open-ended interviews allowed me to have a ﬂexible agenda in
order to explore the subjects’ points of view and unfolded the different meanings of their
experiences by using their own voices. These interviews also provided opportunities to
gain insights into interesting and unexpected ﬁndings. The focus group offered a rich
understanding and multiplicity of views (Gibbs, 1997) about the participants’ experiences
in language learning after their sojourn abroad that were omitted in the interview but yet
were of great signiﬁcance for the development of the study.

By using both individual and focus groups interviews, I gained greater and more
diverse data. The individual interviews presented more personal and in-depth accounts
about the goals to maintain language gains, how to achieve a possible L2 self after the
abroad sojourn, and how this study abroad experience might have inﬂuenced these goals.
The focus groups allowed me to explore the types of activities in which students were
able to engage, the extent to which the students were involved in these activities, and the

difﬁculties they faced in order to accomplish their goals to maintain their language gains.

38

In this chapter I describe the subjects who took part in the study and the setting.
Then, I explain the data collection procedures, and the data analysis used to interpret the

data. Finally, I describe the study limitations and discuss the trustworthiness of the study.

Population

The participants in the study were twenty undergraduate students who studied
abroad in a non-English speaking country for a month, a semester or a year during the
Winter, Spring, and Summer 2008 semesters and then returned to their undergraduate
institution to continue pursuing their degrees in the Fall 2008 semester. Some (but not all)
of the students were majoring in the second language and most (but not all) enrolled in a
course in the language they studied after they returned from their abroad experience.

I chose different lengths in stay to have access to a larger group of possible
participants and to provide me with interesting insights about the types of involvement to
better answer my research questions. Researchers agree that longer stays allow more time
for the student to be exposed to authentic language input and more time for the student to
adapt to the new culture. Dwyer (2004) states that students from long-term study abroad
programs (1 semester to 1 year) are more likely to experience more signiﬁcant and
enduring impact in the areas of continuing language use, academic attainment measures,
intercultural and personal development, and career choices. Even though my study could
have beneﬁted from longer stay programs, I would have run the risk of not being able to
ﬁnd enough participants for the study. I made sure that each participant’s program
offered a variety of opportunities for interacting with the culture, such as living with a
host family, doing social work and making new friends through a ﬁiendship program as a

way of compensating that not everyone was part of a longer stay program.

39

According to the data provided by the university’s international ofﬁce, 536

students went abroad and 345 students met the criterion of returning to campus aﬁer

studying abroad in a non-English speaking country during the 2008 fall semester. Of

those 345 students, 31% went to Spain, 18% went to Italy, 12% went to France, 12%

went to Mexico, 2% went to El Salvador, 3% went to Argentina and Chile, 1% went to

Dominican Republic, and 21% to other non- English speaking countries such as Africa,

China, Japan, Russia and India.

 

 

Chile and
Argentina
3%
Dominican
Repubﬁc

El Salvador 1%

2% ,
Mexnco

12%

France
12%

 

 

Figure 1 .' Percentage of students abroad in non-English speaking countries

For the purposes of this study, it was decided to focus on 20 students who were

enrolled in classes where the target language is offered. My intention was to get

redundancy of information or ‘theoretical saturation’ (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) and

“richly textured understanding of experience” (Sandelowski, 1999, p.183) as well as to

40

 

understand the development of students’ identity as L2 learners from a second language

context to a foreign language context.

In order to ﬁnd possible participants, I contacted the director of the international

ofﬁce that is in charge of study abroad programs and explained the purpose of my study.

I asked the ofﬁce for help in identifying possible participants for the study and also to

help me send the invitation to prospective subjects (see Appendix E). In this invitation, I

explained the purpose and procedures of the study and informed individuals how to

contact me. I also approached colleagues with an email (see Appendix E) explaining the

purpose and the procedures of the study so they could pass the information to prospective

participants. Once the participants contacted me, 1 arranged individual appointments for

the interview. The following chart describes the students that took part in this study. The

subjects’ ages range from 18 to 26 years old. The majority had at least 5 years of

language study during high school and/or college and in one language. Most of the

participants were in their junior or senior year of college. Seven out of twenty did not

have any abroad travel experience, and two students did not have a language minor or

major. Only one student was male, Steve. I made use of pseudonyms for the students in

order to protect their conﬁdentiality.

Table 1 .' Participants

 

 

 

 

 

Name Age Study Years of Previous abroad Years at Language
Abroad language experiences the major or
Program study university minor

Carol 19 France, Niece 4 years Dominican 3 years French Minor
5 weeks Republic

Mexico 1 week

Christine 20 France, Niece 4 years No 3 years French Minor
5 weeks

Emily 22 Mexico for 5 2 years No 3 years Spanish
weeks Minor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

41

 

Table 1 (cont ’d)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Erika 26 Costa Rica 10 years Mexico 2 weeks 21/2 years Spanish Major
Homestay
9 weeks

Gena 21 France, Niece 10 years No 4 years French Minor
5 weeks

Isabelle 21 Sevilla- l 9 years No 4 years Spanish Major
month

Jane 22 Honduras 8 years Mexico- mission 5 years Spanish Minor
Language Trip 3 days
Class Guatemala 1
3 months week

Jill 22 Mexico for 5 5 years Germany 10 days 2 years Spanish Minor
weeks

Joy 21 Mexico for 5 7 years No 4 years Spanish Major
weeks

Katie 19 Mexico for 5 8 years Mexico for l 1 year Spanish Major
weeks week.

Kelsey 19 Mexico for 5 5 years Europe 2 weeks 1 year Spanish Major
weeks

Margarita 22 Bilbao Spain 8 years Nicaragua 1 6 years Spanish Major
1 '/2 months month

Maria 22 Nicaragua 5 years France 1 week 4 years None
lntemship 2

Romero months

Paula 20 Mexico for 5 2 years England 1 month 31/2 years Spanish Minor
weeks

Rachel 19 Spain- 5 years Mexico for 1 year Spanish Minor
Malaga 6 mission work 2
weeks weeks twice

Sarah 19 Mexico for 5 7 years No 2 years Spanish Major
weeks

Siena 18 Italy Florence 1 semester Italy 12 weeks 2 years None
2 months

Stephanie 20 Mexico for 5 8 years Mexico I week 4 years Spanish Minor
weeks

Steve 22 Mexico for 5 2-3 years Mexico 1 week 5 years Spanish Major
weeks

Victoria 21 lntemship 10 years No 4 years French Major
Program in
Paris for 31/2

 

 

months

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setting

Universities differ in the number of students enrolled in second languages and in
the numbers who study abroad. Some universities have substantial ofﬁces of study
abroad; others send their students to programs run by other universities. Second language
learning at any given university must be studied and understood within the context
provided by that university. The population for this study was from one major public
university that has an extensive variety of study abroad programs, a vast reputation in
international education, a good number of extracurricular activities to practice a foreign
language, a growing diverse community and a large number of participants that allowed
me to ﬁnd subjects for the research. It is a comprehensive university with an enrollment
of over 20,000 students and study abroad programs in over 25 countries.

This institution provides opportunities for students to get involved in meaningful
extracurricular activities for language practice after their return such as language round
tables, educational trips, and conferences with international speakers and voluntary work.
The language round tables are discussion sessions scheduled on different days during the
semester during which L2 students meet with a professor and talk about different types of
topics from fashion to politics in the target language. Some leaders from the language
honor societies plan educational trips to museums or conference sites in which inﬂuential
peOple from the target language will be present. Furthermore, the L2 students have
different types of opportunities for social work through different organizations that help
the international community such as the Hispanic Center; English language tutoring,

translation services and through the “big brother, big sister” program.

43

Data Collection

I collected data from these students for a period of one semester after they
returned to their home institution. This data collection period was divided into two main
phases. Phase 1 took place right after students came back from their trip abroad and
involved face to face interviews of approximately 30 to 45 minutes in length with
participants (see Appendix B). The main goal of this phase was to establish the existence
of possible L2 selves or early development of these selves and gain insights about
particular experiences during the study abroad program that could have inﬂuenced future
goals or expectations about language learning after the experience. I used semi structured
and generally open-ended interview questions in order to elicit views and opinions from
the participants and gain depth of understanding of the individuals’ experiences and
concepts of L2 possible selves. These experiences and L2 possible selves helped to
explain the choices students made to maintain their gains when they came back to their
home institution. I let the participants know that these interviews were audio taped before
hand and that I needed their written consent to do so. I also made sure they knew that I
would be the only person allowed to listen to the tapes.

I started the interview session by inviting students to choose a pseudonym as a
way to protect their identity and to respond 3 short written survey (see Appendix A) in
order to create a proﬁle of each of the participants with information relevant to the
development of the study. The purpose of these questions was to get background
information that was able to assist in the progress of the in-depth face-to-face interviews
or in the interpretation of the results. I included questions that addressed length of
language study and previous study abroad experiences that might have inﬂuenced their

motivation to develop learning strategies and their possible L2 selves. Knowing about

44

their present strategies, goals and future plans assisted me in understanding possible L2
selves and their effects on strategy development subsequent to the SA abroad sojourn.

After they answered the written survey, I started the interview by asking
participants about their reasons to go abroad. Then looked at any changes in perceptions
they had of themselves as language learners. These questions provided some insights
about the development of the speaker from a learner to a meaning negotiator that might
have inﬂuenced their future perception of themselves as ﬂuent speakers. The questions
guided the conversation during the interviews and opened possibilities for further
exploration. Another set of questions looked at the goals students had as a way to keep
what they gained during the experience as well as the perceptions of themselves as L2
speakers in the future. I audiotape recorded each interview and transcribed them.

Phase 2 took place at the end of the second month and beginning of the third
month of the semester, after mid-terrn exams evaluations, so that the students were not so
overwhehned by possible academic requirements that might have affected participation in
the focus group. This second phase consisted of a follow up focus group to ﬁnd
information about the development of the participants’ motivation to engage in language
learning, the development of their actual L2 self, and a visualization of a possible L2 self.
I was interested in the diversity of these experiences and what they meant to the subjects’
motivation for and involvement in language learning. Furthermore, I inquired about
possible involvement in extracurricular activities and/or possible impediments for further
engagement. These activities could be described as the ones in which the target language
is the meditational tool of communication, such as productive modes (e-mails to the host

family and friends, e-forums etc.), receptive modes (reading journal articles, newspapers,

45

listening to the radio), or interactive modes such as round tables, chats living in a
language house, cultural ﬁeld trips etc. (Jimenez, 2003).

The focus group method helped participants explore and clarify their views in
ways that would have been less easily accessible in a one to one interview due to its
social nature (Kitzinger, 1995). According to Krueger and Casey (2000), a group
possesses the capacity to exhibit a synergy that individuals alone do not possess. That is,
the possibility of sharing similar experiences can promote more input by a group of
students than one-to-one interviews. Furthermore, the use of a focus group allowed me to
interview 5-8 participants at a time that was more time effective than another round of
individual interviews.

To form the focus group, I sent an electronic invitation, two weeks in advance to
all study participants using the email they provided me at the beginning of the semester. I
used the blind copy function so the subjects’ actual emails were not disclosed to other
members of the study. I asked them about their availability, described the nature of the
meeting, and gave them an agenda for the meeting. The items of the agenda were:
introductions using the pseudonyms chosen during their ﬁrst interview7 and a series of 7
open questions to be discussed during the meeting (see Appendix C). I let them know that
the session was being videotaped and that I needed a signed consent from each
participant. I assured them that I was the only person allowed to see the video for
research purposes and that their privacy was protected to the maximum extent allowable
by law. However, due to time issues and students’ engagements, I had to interview four

students individually and I had to form three focus groups with 8, 3 and 5 members each.

 

7 Even though students might have known each other the use of pseudonyms helped maintain the
conﬁdentiality of those who did not know the other participants. Furthermore, it helped me to maintain
consistency in identifying the subjects during the data transcription process.

46

I also asked one of my colleagues, one who was familiar with study abroad experiences,
to assist me during these meetings by taking notes and helping with the recording so I
could focus on listening and helping the conversation along.

I decided to divide the data collection into two phases. On the one hand, it helped
in the collection of the data at moments where the different processes of involvement or
disengagement might have been taking place. On the other hand, the participants were
able to provide relevant and important information that might have been lost if a lot of
time had passed since the moment of importance. Furthermore, it might have reduced the
possibilities for participants’ withdrawal by demanding less of their time. I did not have
any withdrawals and the students were very helpful in accommodating their schedules.
As a way to compensate participants for their time, a pen with a ‘thank you’ message and
some mints were distributed at the end of the focus group meetings.

In sum, the main research questions and the two sub-questions were answered by
using a mixture of data collection strategies in order to achieve a broad perspective about
the type of involvement or obstacles that students faced in order to retain and improve the
acquired language skills and a development of L2 selves. This study also examined
involvement from a motivational and “possible selves” perspectives in order to

understand the process of motivation.

Data analysis

The data analysis started simultaneously with the interview transcriptions. After I
transcribed each interview, I started coding the responses and looking for general themes.
After the transcriptions of both individual interviews and the focus groups interviews,

were completed, I took one question at a time and carefully read all the answers provided

47

to that question. Then, I began color-coding these answers in the general and numerous
themes (Schneider & Conrad, 1983) previously recorded and created new ones. I
continued until I had exhausted all the questions. Later, I focused the coding by carefully
reviewing the list of general categories, eliminating less useful ones and combining
smaller groups into larger ones. When it was necessary, I created subthemes within a
large theme. The following table shows the ﬁnal record of themes and subthemes that

were identiﬁed in the present study:

Table 2: Data Themes and Subthemes

 

 

THEMES SUBTHEMES

l. L2SELF A. Explicit individual goals for going abroad.
AVAILABILITY a. Intrinsic goals (learning is a goal in itself)
AND GOAL b. Extrinsic goals (getting rewards or good grades are
SETTING (there is a the main motive)
clear image of them as B. Language learning is nonforrnal and experiential.
ﬂuent speakers of the C. Working towards a possible language self while abroad
language) a. Ownership of their language learning process.

b. Identiﬁcation of language needs.
c. Embracing challenges (not deterred by difﬁcult
situations).
D. There is an identity as language speakers during and aﬁer the
experience.

 

2. LZSELF A. Searching for more opportunities beyond the classroom to
ACCESSIBILITY keep their gains.
(refers to opportunities B. Students who were highly motivated about their L2 learning,
for that self to emerge, identiﬁed L2 needs clearly and exhibited clear goals for L2
to become) self achievement.

Students who exhibited low self-esteem in their language

ability, exhibited more grade dependence and had a less

accessible L2 self.

Fears of losinthe Iangu_age.

.0

 

 

3. L2 SELF AND
THEIR ACADEMIC
SELF

Clear goals about what they want from their language
classes.

Realization of L2 selves (becoming minors and majors after
the experience)

More risk takers and more tolerant towards mistakes
Disconnection between their classes’ content, methods and
the other students’ attitudes in their courses, and their L2
goals.

Some signiﬁcance of grades in their L25elf achievement.

COPENU

 

 

.>.m

4. LZSELF AND Competition of other selves and time with their L2 learning
OTHER SELVES goals.

B. L2self was perceived as a tool to obtain other signiﬁcant
possible selves.

C. L2self was envisioned together with other selves.

 

 

 

48

Credibility and T ransferability of the Study

The trustworthiness of this research lies ﬁrst in its data collection. The use of
individual interviews and focus groups as data sources helped in the development of
constant and coherent groups of themes. Second, in order to improve the accuracy of the
subjects’ accounts, the researcher asked a peer debriefer, in this case the same person that
helped with the videotaped recordings during the focus groups meetings, to review the
transcriptions and the themes in order to check for signiﬁcance and inconsistencies
(Creswell, 2003). Third, at the end of the study, the researcher presented the project to an
external auditor who helped generate relevant questions that other researchers might ask
(Bloomberg & Volpe, 2008). Finally, the number of participants in the study helped
reached evident redundancy in the data, which can be of signiﬁcance to similar contexts,

even though it cannot be transferable to other settings.

The Researcher

I, the researcher, have been a language professor for 19 years and a linguist for 12
years. Research on language learning motivation has been one of my main interests in the
pursuit to improve long lasting language learning. My knowledge in language learning
theory is extensive, which has helped me develop an in-depth understanding of the
possible L2 selves’ phenomenon and its impact in language learning. I am also a
language professor at the university where the study took place as well as the study
abroad program director of seven of the subjects that participated in the study. Being a
professor and a study abroad program director might have not only increased the
likelihood of introducing bias into the data collection process but also might have

inﬂuenced the responses from some participants. That is why I used peer debrieﬁng, rich

49

descriptions in the ﬁndings and an external auditor as ways to increase the authenticity

and credibility of the study.

Limitations to the Study

The present study has some limitations. First, the purposive sampling comes from
one institution and there were an unequal number of males (1) and females (19). Thus,
the experiences of this group of participants may not be transferable to all language
students who traveled abroad for longer trips or of male students more generally. Second,
due to time and schedule constraints, it was not feasible to use other data collection
methods, such as journals, that would allow for additional data triangulation. Third, the
interview format of the focus groups may have enhanced data through participant
interaction, but may have reduced response time of individuals who are less verbal and
able to share their perspectives and discourage those with different perspectives to speak
up. Four, the data collection did not follow the ﬁrst individual interview with a second
individual interview that could have provided important information about explicit
possible selves’ changes over time. Finally, this study could have beneﬁted from a longer
period of data collection that might have provided signiﬁcant information about how the
presence of possible L2 selves might inﬂuence the development of language learning
approaches. However, this limitation could be developed into a new study.

In conclusion, in order to investigate the developments of possible L2 selves and
their effects on the creation of language learning strategies, twenty university students
answered several questions at two different points in their semester. The following case
study made use of qualitative methods such as individual interviews, focus groups in

order to collect data and color—coding in order to analyze data. Even though the study

50

experienced some limitations, the researcher took some measures to enhance its

credibility and transferability.

51

CHAPTER FOUR
FINDINGS

Four themes capture the presence and the development of L2 selves in students
who have studied abroad and returned to their home institution to continue their studies.
First, students have an image of themselves as ﬂuent speakers (L2Self availability) and
there are evident goals to attain their L25elves before and after their abroad experience.
Second, students search for opportunities for that self to emerge (L2Self accessibility)
during and after the experience. Third, students’ academic selves and their L2selves are
concurrent in order to attain their goal of language proﬁciency. Fourth, the subjects’

L2selves are in competition with other selves.

L2Self Availability and Goal Setting

The majority of the subjects for this study had clear goals about what they wanted
to accomplish from their abroad sojourn in terms of their language ability and their
overall experience. Many of those goals related to their desire to become speakers of the
target language and to their perception that language learning is informal and
experiential. Once at their destination, the subjects took an active role in moving towards
the achievement of an L25elf.

Prior to departure, many subjects had intrinsic goals in which learning was a goal
in itself. They perceived their abroad experience as an opportunity to improve their
foreign language skills and to widen their cultural knowledge. Erika, for instance, wanted
to go abroad to improve both linguistically and culturally:

First of all I went for fluency. I knew that I would not be able to do that in a
classroom and then secondly, to experience the culture and also just to
expand my own variety. And just the things that I wanted to do to enhance

52

my learning experiences overall as a student included going to another
country studying...

Others like Margarita stressed the importance of just learning more about the differences
in the Spanish language: “I wanted a different dialect and a different perspective in
Spanish language. I wanted to see the differences between the ways it is spoken in
Central America versus the way it was originally spoken in Spain. That’s why I wanted to
go to Spain specially and Bilbao...” Paula said, “I really wanted to learn the language and
I think the best way is to be in the country. You can learn by being in the classroom but
not as much as being immersed in the culture.”

Others had extrinsic goals to go abroad such as getting college credits, getting
more experience and being more marketable for future jobs. For some like Carol and
Rachel, getting a certain amount of credits was crucial in their decision to go. Carol said,
“For my French minor I needed a certain amount of credits. I always wanted to go to
Europe so the Nice program would provide me with six credits towards my French minor
plus I would get to go abroad like I always wanted to so. This was a summer program and
I had this summer free so it worked perfect...” For Sarah, going abroad was important in 1
her formation as a teacher:

I hope to be a teacher someday whether I’m a Spanish teacher or a social
studies teacher, and it’s important to know more about the world not just
your own country. If you’re a Spanish teacher, it is important to actually
experience the Spanish culture.

For others like Jane and Gena, the combination of intrinsic and extrinsic goals

was important in their decision to go abroad:

I wanted to improve my fluency. I wanted to help in a mission ’5 trip and it was
with a Christian organization and I also needed a practicum for my major,

53

which are human rights with the liberal studies program. That’s why I wanted
to serve and get credit (Jane).

For Gena going to France was an opportunity to not only “try out” her skills but to “get
more experience for the international relations major”. Three of the subjects expressed

that their decision to go abroad was more for fun, good timing and affordability. Emily
said:

...My husband and I have a kind of funny relationship and I said hey I want to
go to Mexico for five weeks. He said oh yeah five weeks of video games. 50 I
started to look at it and sounded like fun. Well, I just applied and see what
happens.

Joy chose going to Mexico because it was shorter and not as expensive

I did not want to lose an entire summer. My advisor wanted me to go to
Spain, which sounded really great but it was too expensive. I did not want to
be gone all the summer so I wanted to come back and make some money so
that is why I chose Mexico.

During our ﬁrst interview, most of the participants expressed the importance of
their trip to be immersed in the target language in order to become language speakers.
They also saw their language learning process transcending formal language learning
environments such as the classrooms. Katie afﬁrmed that if she wanted “to advance
anymore” she really needed to go outside of the country and be actually in the culture,
“more of hands on experience with it”. For Carol and Christine, language classes alone
did not provide the needed immersion to become a language speaker

I think that being immersed in the language is better than ...I mean language
classes are good but in Nice Ispoke French from 8:00 in the morning to 3:00
then I went home and spoke French to my family. So it was immersion. (Carol)

54

Christine said, “. . .Taking the classes here would not be the same experience. It would be
very different there. You can learn it here but I think is from the far. And it is like you’re
surrounded. That’s what I wanted”.

Once the subjects were at their destination, their L2self was more available. That
is, there were more opportunities for them to move towards becoming more ﬂuent L2
speakers. Students started to take an active role in their learning process in order to
achieve their goal of becoming ﬂuent in the target language. All of the subjects were able
to experience the language and identiﬁed themselves as speakers of the target language.
For Jill and Carol, being surrounded by Spanish and French was “like a second nature”;
“it was constant, it became natural”. Christine recounted how speaking in French just
“started clicking” and how she “started thinking in French instead of translating back and
forth between the two languages. It became easier”. Others described how they were able
to negotiate meaning in their target language. Paula said:

It was interesting going to Burger King and ordering food in Spanish and
doing it at Starbucks and everything. I think it was one of the best experiences
going to the mall and speaking to people and just meeting people that way.
Like the first couple of days I went the wrong way and got lost and so I
actually talked to someone in Spanish and she give me directions back to my
place that was kind of cool.

Some of the subjects also compared their experience learning in a formal environment
like the classroom with their abroad sojourn and how the latter gave them the opportunity
to identify themselves as speakers:

I felt for the first time I was able to speak French. It’s one thing to be able to
speak in French in class but to be able to live, exist...lt takes an amount of
ability in order to order food, to buy in a store. It takes a certain amount you
don’t need to be perfect but it was really gratifying just to be able to do that.
(Carol)

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Christine said,

Having conversations at the dinner table every night it was a really good
practice actually and specially for working on different tenses because I know
my host mom would ask what are you doing this weekend and then what did
you do last night and to switch back and forth. It worked. It wasn’t a cookie
cutter conversation from the book like in class just fill in the blank, fill in the
word. E verybody’s saying the same thing. Everything is spelled out for you. It
was a real conversation where you have to think about your own response
and why not just what they would ask you to continue.

During their trip, the majority of the subjects was able to identify their language
needs and created strategies in order to accomplish their goal of becoming ﬂuent
speakers. Some of them like Margarita spent time meeting the locals so they could have
more natural conversations and in that way, they could increase their ﬂuency and
grammatical levels:

I said I can’t speak English because my Spanish is not good enough to be
where I am now at. I need to learn. So I did that and went out to a ”pincho”
bar and I made friends with the owners and they would teach me how to do
it. I would tell them correct me please correct me because I need to know if
I’m wrong. And they laughed but they corrected me. We write letters back
and forth so it’s really good. He is 60 years old but hey; he knows the
language better than anybody I know.

Others like Sarah created their own strategies such as a “Spanish only” policy when they
were among English speakers “Ok we’re here to speak Spanish is not to speak English
unless we have to. So we challenged ourselves by doing that”. Emily, for instance, built a
list of words and expressions that could help her and her roommate express their ideas
better in the target language and avoid defaulting back to English:

My roommate and! wrote down words that we wanted to learn. Like when
we were thinking about the mummy museum, we didn’t know any words for
eerie, creepy or gross. So we would write those down and on the busses we

56

would go back and forth with what we remembered and how the other
person guessed. We did that a lot and then our mom and dad whenever they
would speak to us and we would try to talk about jellyfish in Puerto Vallarta
and we were trying to describe a jellyfish because we could not think about
the word. We had to grab our dictionary eventually because I think they use
Medusa. We have one page in our notebook where we wrote what we didn’t
know and tried to go over it and use it.

Throughout their abroad experience, many of the subjects embraced everyday
challenges because doing so provided them with “real” learning opportunities. Stephanie,
for instance, explained how a bus episode was the perfect situation for her to learn:

We definitely went on to some adventures you know. We talked to taxicab
drivers and bus drivers you know. One time we got on a bus, we got on the
wrong route; they had already passed our stop. We had to go all the way
back around the route. We had already gone an hour outside of where we
lived and we realized when the bus pulled over to the bus station. OK this is
not good because we didn’t get off on our stop. 50 we went and asked the
guy and he was ”oh you missed your stop. Where do you need to go?” and we
explained to him you know a big market on the city and asked if he could get
us there. He said all well hop back on I will take you there. If we would have
been very intimidated to speak Spanish and explained to him where we
needed to go, we would have been lost and stuck in the city. But as situations
like that, not just sitting at home speaking Spanish to each other and to our
mom but the situation you know like the bus, the taxi, even just going to
restaurants and all those things forced us. OK you might not be that
comfortable explaining where you live in and why not. You have to. That’s the
only option. I personally like that. It made me want to go out the next day
and do something else where I was, you know, forced to really thinking and
explained myself in a language that is not my first.

Some subjects also made sure that their needs were being met by not letting the locals
make things easier for them. Kelsey and Gena recounted how discouraging it was when

native speakers wanted to speak English to them:

57

Whenever I went out it seemed like anyone I’d talk to spoke English to me,
which was kind of discouraging sometimes because I was like no I am trying
to speak Spanish to you so stop trying to make things easier for me and for
yourself. Like obviously they wanted get the conversation and the business
over with so they speak English for our benefit but I was like so frustrating
sometimes like in the market or at a restaurant sometimes. (Kelsey)

Gena said

...Sometimes people just start talking to you in English; that was kind of
frustrating. Because you kind of think ohhh my French is bad so they’re trying
to make it easier for me. It was kind of sad but I just tried to keep going to
French. When we would go to a restaurant, we would ask the waiter to talk
to us in French since we were there to learn French. They’re pretty
understanding about that.

Once they came back, the majority of the students from the study could see a clear

picture of themselves in the future as ﬂuent speakers of the language together with the

realization of other selves such as a working self, an academic self, a mom self etc. For

most of the subjects, like Steve and Gena, a very ﬂuent L25elf was their “ultimate” goal:

Hopefully, it doesn’t take five or ten years to be that good at Spanish. My
ultimate goal, hopefully, within the next year or two is be able to engulf
myself in a culture by myself. I don ’t need a group of Americans around or
anything like that to help me and I just go by myself and to be able 100%
communicate with them. My ultimate goal is fluency. (Steve)

I hope to be fluent in French and taking at least two other languages to the
point to be able to speak it. Not necessarily for writing by just to be able to
communicate with people. (Gena)

For Maria and others, a ﬂuent L2 self in combination with other selves were part of their

future:

Hopefully, I see myself fluent because I would like to work for the military
effort in central or South America. My goal is to move down there after I
finished the military or after I secure some kind of career I might be able to
work down there and so hopefully I will be fluent so I can get my work done.

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For Joy, however, the availability of an L28elf in her future was not very clear:

I’m hoping that as Isaid I’ll have a job where I can speak Spanish so hopefully
I won’t have declined in my speaking, and listening and writing skills but
hmm, it is hard to say because I don’t really know what I want to do after I
graduate. I know I’d like to do something with Spanish but I have nothing
specific in mind. So pretty much see what comes in my way but hopefully I will
have something where I can use Spanish every day.

In sum, for most subjects a clear image of an L23elf was constant before,
during and after their abroad experience. They were also very active in the pursuit
of their goals and many expressed how important informal learning was towards
their LZSelf attainment. The majority had a clear vision of themselves as ﬂuent

speakers of the language in their future.

L2Self Accessibility

Immediately after the subjects came back from their experience abroad, they
faced a period of adjustment between their identities as L1 and L2 speakers. They also
looked for opportunities for their L2 selves to emerge in order to keep their language
gains and continue improving their language skills during the semester. Furthermore,
most of them showed some concern about the possibility to lose their ability to speak the
language.

As soon as they came back from their abroad sojourn, all of the subjects faced a
period of adaptation between their identities as L] and L2 speakers. Some experienced
times when they would talk to English speakers in Spanish or French. Victoria for
instance, recalled asking a man at the Miami airport if he could help her with her luggage
in French and how odd that moment was for her when she realized that she was not in

Paris anymore. After two months of coming back, Joy continued thinking in Spanish:

59

Sometimes I miss it. Like, right when I came back whenever I go out
somewhere I would start thinking in Spanish but I would say no way it is
English not Spanish. [still do it even though it’s been like two months since
we’ve been back

Christine remembers a similar experience when she came back off the plane in Cleveland
and had difficulty thinking in English:

When we came back off the plane in Cleveland and I remember walking up to
the guy in customs and he spoke English to me and I just remembered kind of
stuttering, thinking on the response. And I was so embarrassed! was like
they’re not going to let me into the country because I had to think about
English. It was the weirdest feeling but it fell so good and that’s when I knew
it worked because I had to think about English.

Erika had a moment in which she did not even know what world she was in when she got
back. “When I ﬂew into Miami I wanted to keep speaking Spanish and asking like when I
ordered food, I wanted to do it in Spanish. It was weird. I didn’t know in what world I
was in. I didn’t know. It didn’t seem like the US. yet so that was like very odd”. Other
participants such as Emily recollected how strange it was for them to even read and listen
to the media in English:

...and it was really strange in media to experience all English paper, TV, radio
everything was English and I mean even just getting into the airport in
Atlanta like man sounds funny to me like we spoke English to each other here
and there but we tried to speak Spanish to each other at home.

Once they came back and during the semester, students all looked for
different opportunities to practice and to maintain what they have learned, as well
as for their L2 self to emerge. Some considered going abroad again; others like,
Jane, watch more television channels and read more books in the target language,

watch more foreign movies, listen to music, take more language classes, get

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involved in social work in communities where the target language is spoken, look
for more teacher support, meet more people that speak the native language, and
buy software that can help them with their language skills. As soon as Steve came
back, he “got crazy” with his class schedule and enrolled in four language classes
so he could have more language exposure. He comments:

Some of those classes are literature classes but that’s not really my thing. The
biggest reason I’m taking these classes is to expose myself to the language
more. I have experienced in both of the literature classes that the teachers
will lecture a lot and that allows me to listen 0 lot more and interact more
speaking and listening...because the hardest thing for me was when I got
back here it was all English. I didn’t really like that so much. I only had class
for two days a week for three hours; that was basically my Spanish practice.
To involve myself In many classes, I will have lots of opportunities to continue
learning. I just come to class every day speaking Spanish and I go home and
study Spanish, and I go to work and continue doing that and I continue to
involve myself four days a week with that much Spanish. It’s like keeping
myself busy with Spanish to the point that I cannot speak English. That’s the
closest setting to Mexico, engulfing myself so much in Spanish that I don’t
have an opportunity to speak English. That’s how I’m going to learn.

Kelsey highlighted how important her abroad experience was in her motivation to
try other resources as ways to practice the language and to even consider going
abroad again:

Being in Mexico and taking classes there really prompted me to try and get
some other Spanish language influences such as trying to look for children’s
books in Spanish that I can start reading. Maybe some more Spanish music or
I have a book here that is obviously a huge novel but because I love to read
and maybe I need to start incorporating some Spanish books and maybe get
a Spanish book and an English book - same thing so I can reenact them. 50,
OK, I totally didn’t understand that part. So I can go to the English book,
”what did that say?”...!’m really leaning towards going to Bilbao next
semester so I am thinking well I need to start looking online for some facts

61

about the culture in Spain, which is totally different from Latin America, that I
need to like obviously by myself go and find out different facts.

Others, like Paula and Stephanie, found in their Hispanic friend a great resource to
perform in Spanish:

It has been frustrating because a lot of people feel uncomfortable speaking. I
really miss speaking [Spanish]. When I got back, there are a lot of people
from Mexico and I got over to a lady’s house and she cooked dinner and she
tells you about her experiences in Mexico and I try to speak a little bit to her.
Where I work, there are a lot of people who do the cleaning. They are from
Guatemala and Guanajuato. I’d talk a lot about my experiences there. I can
practice Spanish like this. (Paula)

...then I get back and tried to speak Spanish to anyone I possibly can. I have a
friend that I worked with in a restaurant. I went to visit him two days after!
got back because he speaks Spanish and I just went and sat there and spoke
Spanish for half an hour. I just needed it. I am like, I just did all this work to
speak Spanish and now I have nobody even, you know, to chat, you know. I
was watching Univision. Just trying everything I can, you know, looking into
another study abroad program so ! can go and learn more Spanish and it was
almost like I felt it was not time to come back. I would have liked to have
more time there obviously. (Stephanie)

For some participants, their L2 selves were very accessible and they were able to
have clearer goals about their language ability and to express how far they wanted to get
with the language. As soon as Paula got back from Mexico, she went straight into 300
level classes and volunteered in her sister’s Spanish classroom where there were a lot of
Latinos. She was planning on going abroad again to the Dominican Republic because she
wanted to become really ﬂuent. For Steve, his biggest thing was speaking without errors
and “being conversational”. He said:

My focus is developing my Spanish whether people want to help me or not so.
If they want to speak English it’s their last. I’m taking the Spanish class so
why not speak Spanish there? You can speak English any other time. I tried to

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speak to [other students] in Spanish but conversations are hard when you
respond to them in Spanish and they respond to you in English.

Christine, for instance, considers French a part of her and makes use of every opportunity
to keep her language gains

I’m already planning on ways to keep up with the language after I graduate
and I hope to be taking classes in other places and I can still keep up with it
because it’s either use it or lose it and I don’t want to lose it. I want to be able
to share that. I have been researching places in [city name] and my aunt
speaks French too and I have already been calling her and like I need to talk
to you. We need to converse. I am afraid to lose it, I guess. I have been
getting movies and I have been pursuing it stronger I guess now than before
because it was just kind of like you know it is French like I do it four days a
week. It is becoming more a part of me. I don’t want that piece to drift away.
It wasn’t like that before I went. It is more important to me now I guess.

For others, their L2 selves were not very accessible due to the fact that
there were not many native speakers of the target language, which made ﬁnding
opportunities to maintain their gains much harder and to reach their language
goals very challenging. Victoria said that she tried to ﬁnd people who spoke
French but it had been difﬁcult because there were not many French native
speakers:

I am a French Major and there is not a big French community anywhere
around here so it’s kind of frustrating. I became a French Major to keep
working on it. However, it has been almost impossible to find someone that
speaks French. I worked with a bunch of Bosnians. When I applied for my job
my boss did my interview in French and everything, and now I translate for
social services for refugee services. It is really hard to find someone that
speaks French.

Erika and Rachel both had a difﬁcult time ﬁnding Latino friends to practice with.

Erika said, “It is sort of disheartening because I wanted to continue speaking as

63

much as I have been but it’s really hard when people around you do not speak
Spanish. People that are native speakers you know”. For Carol, this semester has
not been easy. She even doubted the value of French in her life and she felt very
frustrated with her level of French at the moment of the interview:

Right now I am really in a bad place. I am just really frustrated because I feel
like I have been in a school forever and with a nursing major, I really want to
get this French minor when I really should be learning Spanish ’cause that’s
what everything is going. I am stronger in Spanish. I have dedicated time to
my French minor and to quit would be like a waste of time.

Many of the study participants feared losing their foreign language due to lack of
practice but they also considered ways to avoid this lost. Maria, for instance, was very
nervous about the idea of losing her skills but she had some ideas about how to keep
practicing such as listening to more music and reading more books. For Joy, losing her
skills was a possibility but she felt it was up to her to avoid it. She said that she needed to
take the initiative and do something about it. Rachel was very scared of forgetting
everything during the summer. She said:

I feel like if I don’t go somewhere and use it I’m going to forget it allover the
summer. I won’t but it just feels like during a semester you always have at
least two classes in Spanish but during the summer you have three months.
I’m going to be back like to a 200 level if I don’t use it. I won’t be but I am
score of it.

Stephanie, on the other hand, was not nervous about losing it. She felt very strong
about her passion for the language and how that feeling was going to provide her
with the resources to keep her gains:

I am not nervous of losing it only because OK I have thought about it before.
If! don’t enroll in a Spanish class I’m going to start back 123 but it’s almost
like adrenaline rush in me when Istart speaking. When I find a little kid to
speak to in Meijer, when Ipick a book or in the bus when they see signs out

64

110

all

is.

(If)

cover up the English part and translate the Spanish part, like little things like
that and then I think to myself that it is like riding a bike. I feel like I have
gotten it. I just know exactly. It might take some minutes to get warmed up
and you will stumble with some sentences. As far as losing it, I feel it is
something that has now solidified in my brain because I lived there and I feel
like I just can put myself back in Mexico and just be like sure. I just start
speaking Spanish. I don ’t know if that is just something that I developed on
my own because I have a love and passion for the language...l don’t know. It
is something that excites me and I look forward to it when I find something to
read or when I find a kid to talk to. OK there is Spanish and I still got it.

In sum, after coming back, the students all experienced a period of
adjustment between their L1 self and their L2 self. All of the participants tried to
ﬁnd ways to practice their L2 language. For some, the possibilities for their L2
self to emerge was very feasible. For others, it was more challenging. Most of the

students expressed some type of concern about losing their language abilities.

L2self and their Academic Self

In terms of their identity as language speakers and how ﬂuent and accurate in
their target language they wanted to become, the subjects from the study experienced
noticeable changes and faced some challenges as learners. These changes are related to
the way they used to behave in the language classroom before the abroad experience and
their perceptions as language speakers. The challenges they faced are related to the
disconnection between their goals and their experiences in and outside of the classroom.
Changes in their Role as Learners

18 out of 20 students asserted that their experience abroad boosted their
conﬁdence levels, which have allowed them to become more actively involved in their

classes. Rachel, Katie, and Siena, for instance, stated that thanks to the increase in their

65

conﬁdence levels, they have been able to learn more and become more “proactive”

towards their learning:

I have learned a lot. I know more and I feel more confident. I have become
more proactive like I want to learn it more. Before, I always wanted to study
Spanish. I have always had a passion for that. Now that I have been over
there like I even have more desire to learn it and not just study before the
exams. I feel like I want more. (Rachel)

You feel a lot more confident. [I am ] able to raise [my] hand and be the first
person to say something because [I] know that. I have all ready been there
and had to go through the embarrassing moments of actually speaking to
people not knowing what was going on. (Katie)

I think now that I have been there and I have seen the people, the culture and
I like heard speaking it. It has given me more of a purpose. I am more
attentive whereas before when I took other languages I really didn’t know
what was going on. I didn’t understand...and now that I am back here I am
finding that I am losing any of the Italian I had. 50 I tried to be more attentive
in class and do things outside of class that I can still build vocabulary and
hopefully when I go back to Italy I will be able to speak and understand
people a lot better. (Siena)

For Maria, the increase in her conﬁdence level has prompted her to use her skills in
nonacademic contexts such as the grocery store:

I would say definitely that my confidence and comprehension levels have
gone up. I am more confident speaking to people outside the classroom now,
wherever I am at in my grocery store, when I am doing the laundry I would
just start speaking to people in Spanish and because I am more confident in
the public arena.

For Erika and Sarah, on the other hand, their conﬁdence levels went down and
their nervousness has not allowed them to continue improving and get the most of
their classes. Erika described it as a mental block that has been so difﬁcult to

overcome:

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I still get nervous in class depending what class it is. I necessarily don’t know
why. I wish I would not react like that but sometimes I don’t want to try and I
feel bad. I know answering questions would be good for me but I feel like, I
am still nervous and I don’t want to. Around certain professors I don’t feel as
much comfortable. I want to pass that but I have that mental block. I think it
is the image of the professor that I have built up about them in my mind. It is
not necessarily that they are harder to speak to it just happens like that for
me. That is the main block that I feel different than when I was in Costa Rica.
(Erika)

The big challenge for me is the nervousness. Sometimes I feel like I can’t
speak Spanish. It is even worse because everybody knows that I studied
abroad and they want to know what other people are saying and I react and
say don’t put that on me. (Sarah)

Three out of the 20 students stated that they are more risk takers and are not afraid of
making mistakes. For Sarah, Jill, and Christine, mistakes are opportunities for learning:

I want to talk more; that’s the only way you get better. In high school, I was
so afraid of being wrong that’s probably why I didn’t talk that much. The only
way you get better is by talking and making mistakes and having to explain
yourself or having people correcting you (Sarah)

I am even more of a risk taker now. Anybody who will speak it with me now I
will. Before, I was intimidated by professors. I did not want to feel stupid
because I was supposed to know things but I realize it is OK to forget and just
try anyway. And I knew that before but I was a still afraid and timid about it. I
was not concerned so much about the grade but at the feeling that you
should know this and why is not coming out, you know. (Christine)

I’m more confident. I’m OK with making mistakes. Everybody there is really
understanding and willing to help. It’s OK if you don’t get it perfect. I think I’m
more excited. I feel better and more confident. I like this subject just as much
but this experience has given me a more firm background. We’ve reviewed
tough subjects such as subjunctive. And more comfortable using that and I
think I learned more and just increases my interest. (Jill)

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Studying abroad has not only inﬂuenced the subjects’ conﬁdence levels but it has
also expanded their notion of language learning opportunities beyond the classroom. For
some students these learning opportunities signify ways to create connections between
the classroom and the community and for some others, it translates into bringing real life
situations into the classroom. For Stephanie, “getting the community involved instead of
being in a boring class surrounded by four walls” will teach them far more than literature
classes. Katie emphasized how important a Hispanic culture class was for her learning
because it had many community work opportunities that showed her more about the
Latino culture:

The link of the classroom to the community is very important. I never had a
class like this one before and I’m learning the most in this class. The professor
gives us opportunities all the time. Every day he sent us an e-mail saying hey
by the way this is going on downtown if you are interested in this. Go to a
Catholic church and just listen to the ceremony in Spanish. I am very excited
for Thursday to go downtown to do ”dia de Ios muertos” walk. I am excited
for it. I learned the most when its hands on and you are with the people.

For Sarah, bringing real life situations into the classroom was very important for
her learning:

I think the classes should do more activities for everyday life. Right now in
[course #1321 we’re making a podcast thing you have to come up with a sci-fi
story. It is fun but some groups are talking about aliens. That is so good and
fun but when I went to Mexico, I wanted an extra pillow and I didn’t know the
word for pillow because you forget those words. [I would like to talk] more
about everyday life topics.

Most of the students afﬁrm that their abroad experience changed their purpose of
being in a language classroom. They said that before it was another subject and another

requirement to fulﬁll but that after being abroad, this view changed. Margarita, for

68

([2

ill

instance, recounted how Spanish was just another subject before going abroad but now it
has become a way of life for her. “Before it was like I have to do this so I get the grade. I
have to do this so I can graduate. Now I’m doing it because I want to identify and being
part of that community”. Maria was more excited about her Spanish class now than
before the experience because she saw it as a “gateway” to speak more Spanish:

Not so excited before I was like ”oh no another Spanish class four days a
week, why” but I am actually really excited to take it. I am looking at as a
gateway to speak more Spanish. I really like to speak Spanish. I am like please
let’s go back to the restaurant again I like to speak Spanish. I did not have the
same passion to the class. It took this experience to get the passion to further
my education...

For Victoria, the reasons to take French became clearer after the experience and for
Siena, being in Italy has given her more of a purpose to be in a language class back
home:

I didn’t like international relations and didn’t like French. I was just doing it to
do something and French I like but it was too hard and discouraged me. But
then when I came back it was totally different. I love French classes! I’m still
bad at it but I love going to class. Before I would do my homework and just
read the thing real quick but now when I do my homework, I’d take notes and
I’d look up every word. I keep a list of every word I don’t know. Like if! get a
paperback, I keep a list of every grammatical mistake I make because I’m so
determined to be good at it. (Victoria)

I think now that I have been there and I have seen the people the culture and
I like heard speaking it. It has given me more of a purpose. I am more
attentive whereas before when I took other languages I really didn’t know
what was going on. I didn’t understand. (Siena)

Studying abroad has presented some of the subjects with views of themselves as
language speakers and has inﬂuenced their decisions about becoming language minors

and majors as ways to get closer to their L2self. For the majority of the students, their

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0i.

SUI

L23elf meant a better speaker, for others, it meant mastering the language grammar, and
getting better grades. For some, their L2self was a combination of being ﬂuent and
grammatically correct.
Learning Goals

The majority of the subjects’ ultimate goal was to acquire ﬂuency in the target
language. For these students it was imperative that language classes offered a lot of
speaking opportunities, were conducted in the target language, and provided real life
scenarios that would help them communicate easily in the real world. Students shared that
learning a language was about being able to function in that language in real contexts.
They equated their meaning of learning a language to what they experienced abroad.
Christine, for instance, wanted more speaking in her classes and more interaction. She
also expressed how important it was for her to become ﬂuent and how four days a week
of French classes were not enough to reach that ﬂuency. That was why she tried to
surround herself by downloading French music and by using the language lab more often.
Victoria stated that she used her French all the time in her classes and emphasized how
these speaking opportunities have helped her towards her goal of becoming a ﬂuent
speaker. Steve decided to “involve” himself in many classes so he could have lots of
opportunities to speak and think in the language. For Jane, on the other hand, being able
to speak the language in the classroom deters her from becoming ﬂuent because from her
point of view “you will always sound like whom you talk with”. She does not want to
sound like an “American” speaking Spanish:

I’m kind of scared that when I get to class I’m going to pick up the bad accent
that people speak in class because they’re all gringos. They say things a lot
different in class than there. So there, I am going to be more fluent.

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Margarita was a Spanish minor before going abroad; after coming back, she decided to
make it her major. Grammar was her main focus because she needed to make sure that

she did not sound like she was “not a Spanish major anymore”. For Jill and Margarita,

getting good grades and good sentence formation would get them closer to their L2self
goal:

I’d like to get out of my class with an A. I’d like to get out and know that I
learned something from my trip. Before I felt like I was grabbing words out of
air to put them in to sentences and make them fit but it was an English
format but Spanish words you know. I want to use Spanish sentences to write
Spanish papers oppose to think in them in English and writing down. I
consider that as a goal.

Emily decided to make Spanish her minor because her ultimate goal was to become
ﬂuent. However, she also stated that nailing down some grammatical concepts to the
point that she did not have to think so much about it was important in order to get where
she wanted with the language:

The expectations for me would just be to kind of nail down some of the things
that I would know in a conversation, which forms to use like a command - you
have to use the subjunctive. I know that but I don’t remember all the other
uses of the subjunctive. There is always a part of me that has a couple little
things like ”Por vs. Para” not really sure. A couple of uses of ”era and fue” but
I’m not really sure. Kind of be able to pass that to the point that I don’t have
to think so hard about it. Obviously, I’m going to have to put thought on
constructing my language in Spanish but just the kind of not thinking so much
into the little things and to be able to get a broader idea.

Most of the subjects stated a set of goals that they wanted to achieve from their

language classes after their return and they indicated how those goals inﬂuenced their
decisions about what classes to take and in what activities to engage. However, many of
them experienced critical disconnections between their goal and what the language

classes offered them.

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Challenges Related to the Type of C lass Instruction

For the majority, ﬂuency was their “ultimate goal” and for some others, mastering
their target language’s grammar was their main purpose. For Steve, getting the maximum
L2 exposure was the reason to enroll in 4 Spanish classes. “The biggest reason I’m taking
these classes is to expose myself to the language more. I have experienced in both of the
literature classes that the teachers will lecture a lot and that allows me to listen a lot
more”. For Stephanie her Spanish class was “the only one chance” she had to really be
engaged. That is why she tried to “soak up” as much as she could. Maria’s goal was also
to become ﬂuent. That is why she was considering volunteering at a migrant camp in
order to ﬁnd “outlets” where she could speak to people all the time. Christine also
emphasized how important it was for her to get really ﬂuent and how that goal inﬂuenced
her decisions about the type of learning activities she decided to engage in:

I really want to be a fluent speaker. I want to be able to read and write in the
language kind of pass that barrier. I really think that I’m going to jump into
study first. 60 to the Lab all the time, listen to music. I downloaded a bunch
of music that I found when I was abroad and some new artists and playing it
so that I can still be surrounded by it because I feel that fifty minutes a day
isn’t really enough four days a week. I realize that now. No wonder why it
was so hard for me because that’s not very much because you can go into
your French class and be in French for an hour and then leave and forget
about it so and I don’t want to because it’s easier when you don’t, when you
are in it all the time. It becomes a lotfaster so.

For Jane, getting better at grammar was her main goal and that was the reason why she
decided to sign up for a grammar class in the winter. Margarita also stated that mastering
her Spanish grammar was her main objective and she continued on describing the type of

activities she would like to engage in order to acquire her objective:

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I really need to focus about grammar. Grammar is my weakest point in
everything. To comprehend it, I need to sit down and I need to write it. I really
need to sit down and review subjunctive, regular verbs, past. [I need to ] make
sure that I’m not sounding like I am not a Spanish Mayor anymore. It’s time
to sound like you are a Spanish Mayor.

One-half of the subjects felt that what they experienced in their classroom was not
in accordance with their expectations and language goals. They all mentioned how their
classes did not provide enough opportunities for oral practice and that there was a lot of
emphasis on lecturing rather than practice in the higher levels. They also highlighted that
their classes lacked opportunities for practical use of the language and they emphasized
how the majority of the classes focused on too much on grammar:

I do agree with that in the classroom it is more like diction. This is how to do
it, do a worksheet on it and conjugate. Write an essay. We don’t get much
practice to speaking and using the grammar in a practical manner. (Maria)

Especially in my class, we ever barely talk. We just learned about sounds like
the mouse and stuff so it is hard to find time to speak because we don’t ever
have discussions and everything. (Rachel)

Challenges Related to the Type of Class.
Some participants questioned the effectiveness of the literature focus on the
higher levels for language learning. They found the topics irrelevant to their goals:

I have three classes and I feel that the material isn’t interesting or as real as
when you really use language. I understand the reasons why you get a degree
but! think that a literature focus causes us to lose interest. You’re analyzing
these things and you understand why you are using subjunctive and whatever
may be but for when it comes to literature specific, I get frustrated because
I’m sitting In class and I know I have to do these to get a grade. It doesn’t
excite me the way just being surrounded by Spanish does...l really didn’t
question it until recently, the focus of the degree, to start looking into what
other schools do, specifically, for education. [I] learn more things than we
actually are going to be able to use. When I graduate I don’t know what my

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degree is really saying. I really want it to say that she is really driven and
passionate to become bilingual. There is probably a focus for analyzing
literature but I’m not an English major. [I would like it to] focus more on
Spanish and on everyday use. (Erika)

My classes are hard and I don’t think they are benefiting my ability to speak
very much because we are analyzing historical literature and I don ’t really see
a lot of pertinence today. I mean yeah culturally yeah it’s great but like you
know I’m not going to be a teacher so I just really want to learn to speak it
because what I care about is what’s happening now in Nicaragua. It is not
dead 600 years ago. (Margarita)

Paula and Steve considered taking classes with students who are not so passionate about
Spanish or who have not been abroad a real challenge. According to these two students, it
was very difﬁcult to practice the language with other students in these classes because
they would rather speak English all the time even in the Spanish classroom. For Paula
and Steve, these students were not interested in becoming L2 speakers and they did not
invest the same amount of energy and effort:

It is hard to go up to someone and want to speak Spanish when they only
want to speak English. When I do group projects with people in my class,
when we get together you know it is in English and not in Spanish. It is kind of
hard being around an English community when you want to speak Spanish.
(Steve)

I just sometimes find some of the Spanish classes a little bit boring because
you are taking the class with the students who were just there to take it. They
are not as passionate. I just felt that the way it was taught in Mexico you are
freer to speak and learn how to group your grammar that way instead of
doing worksheets about it. It was more hands on. (Paula).

The majority of the subjects experienced important changes in the way they
approach their language subject and faced obstacles that made their goal of becoming
ﬂuent and proﬁcient at the language less accessible. On the one hand, the majority

experienced a big boost in their conﬁdence levels as a result of studying abroad and

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expanded their language learning opportunities beyond the classroom in search of
opportunities to get closer to their L2 self. On the other hand, they faced discrepancies

between their goals and the language classroom goals.

LZSelf and other Selves

During the semester after the subjects came back from their abroad experience,
several factors inﬂuenced their L25elves’ goals. The students perceived their L2self as a
tool to achieve other selves; they visualized it together with other signiﬁcant selves; and
they faced some challenges such as other stronger selves, lack of time and lack of
resources in their path to achieve their L2 self goals.

For many of the subjects, becoming ﬂuent in a language and getting closer to their
L2self represented a means to achieve other selves. Over one-half of the 20 students
mentioned that they would like to become really proﬁcient so they could put it in a
résumé to open possibilities for jobs like a nurse, elementary teacher or social worker
among others. Steve emphasized how companies nowadays are looking for people with
cultural experiences or with foreign language experiences and he stressed the importance
of being able to put it in a résumé as a way to get employed. Maria stated that in order to
get her job done in the military, she would need to become really ﬂuent:

Hopefully, I see myself fluent because I would like to work for the military
effort in central or South America. My goal is to move down there after!
finished the military or after I secure some kind of career I might be able to
work down there and so hopefully, I will be fluent so I can get my work done.
That’s what I would like to see myself.

For Rachel, Sienna, Erika and Emily, their knowledge of a foreign language will make
ﬁnding a job in their ﬁeld easier. Rachel, for instance, wanted to become a nurse and

pointed out how instrumental she could become in her ﬁeld if she would speak Spanish:

75

I just work. in the ER and the Triage and there are usually two translators
there and they are always busy. You always have peOpIe waiting for the
translator to get there. It is not like it is always urgent but a lot of times like
people are uncomfortable and like it just would be so much easier if there are
more people who knew Spanish. Probably, if two of the nurses knew
Spanish...ldeally, I would love to use my Spanish every day, every time and at
a hospital.

In ten years I hope to be fluent and be able to communicate. My overall goal
is to own my own boutique or work in a fashion magazine. If I was buying I
know I’d be like buying from Italy and like communicating in Italian and be
able to speak to them fluently and travel there and be able to just fit right in
language wise. (Sienna)

For Stephanie and Margarita, being ﬂuent in that other language would allow them to
reach their integrative self”. Stephanie afﬁrmed that her motivation in learning Spanish
was because she wanted to be able to help the target community:

The reason behind my motivation for learning Spanish is that I want to. I have
seen how children who are either migrant children or just kids that don ’t speak
English well, how much they suffer and once they are being ripped away from
their country and culture and then they have to learn English. There is a chance
that they lose their first language and that aspect, and I guess that the reality of
that and you know, how traumatic that can be for a child’s life is what has
motivated me to want to learn Spanish.

When the participants described themselves in ﬁve to ten years from now in terms
of their ability to listen, speak, read and write in their target language, other selves were
repeatedly mentioned in the students’ perception of their future. Almost one-half of the

female students mentioned their desire to become ﬂuent so they could teach Spanish,

 

8 I decided to incorporate and adapt Gardner’s (2001) term lntegrativeness into the possible self-construct.
lntegrativeness means a genuine interest in learning the second language in order to come closer to the
other language community. F mm a possible self-perspective, an integrative possible self is that self that is
and feels part of the target language community.

76

French or Italian to their own kids. Over three-quarters of the students mentioned the
possibility to bring the target language and their profession together:

I hope to be an actual ambassador either to Mexico or Spain. I'm going to
Law school so I can be more of a talker to be able to get there with a higher
degree and I want to be some sort of ambassador to a foreign country but I
wanted to be in the language of Spanish. I hope to get some sort of
internship. I know a Spanish attorney in Grand Rapids that has a Spanish
speaking law firm and I want to get to talk to him a little bit more and
hopefully to be able to be an intern there with hands on and to be able to be
with Hispanic people and the low side of it. (Katie)

I see myself as being a teacher hopefully in social studies and Spanish. And
speaking Spanish and trying to inspire like my Spanish One teacher. She was
the most amazing teacher. She made it fun, she made it exciting. That’s the
type of teacher I want to be. Getting students interested in it not taking it
because it is a requirement [but] because they want to take it, because that’s
how I always felt about it. So that’s what I hope to do. If I’m a social studies
teacher, I hope to be like, when I was in Mexico blah, blah, or when I was in
Spain blah, blah, blah. So, I would like to be able to inspire other people with
a love for the language. I love social studies, I love politics, government and
all of the stuff so I really want to teach social studies but at the same time;
Social Studies teachers are not in demand whereas Spanish teachers with so
many people coming in you can just walk into any school in the west coast,
you will sign a contract the same day, you know. Job security and I love
Spanish. (Sarah)

I see myself working in a job most likely non-profit,‘working helping families
getting situated...helping people that don’t know a lot of English. That’s the
kind of job that I imagine myself working in, a small nonprofit helping people.
Some type of social work. My major is sociology. I want to go to grad school; I
don’t know when yet (Jill)

If I do the international development I can see myself doing projects and
going back probably to Honduras and other areas that they need it also.
Guatemala is opening an orphanage too. (Jane)

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Isabelle, on the other hand, did not mention a speciﬁc job but she considered the
possibility of continuing study languages so she could travel through Europe:

I’m hoping to be at least fluent in Spanish and Italian and hopefully learning
Arabic and maybe another language may be traveling through Europe finding
jobs there. I don ’t know. I am still eager to learn.

During the semester after their abroad experience, the participants faced several
challenges in their pursuit of their LZSelf. Some of the most mentioned challenges were
lack of time, busy schedules, other jobs, and other minors and majors. Jane, Sarah, Gena
and Erika explained how lack of time, grades and busy schedules stopped them from
getting involved in more activities that could have helped them with their language
learning goals:

I really want to do the AmeriCorps program but if I want to get good grades,
you can have only so many extracurricular. There is a constraint of time I
guess. I wish I could do more volunteering like that. (Jane)

I have not been able to do anything else because I have eighteen credits this
semester. I have seen the flyer for the ESL program and I thought about it but
to me grades are extremely important but I don’t want to stretch myself too
thin. That is why I have not been able to do as many cultural activities that!
have probably liked to do. I love Spanish but that is not something that comes
supernatural to me. It takes me a while if! want to read a book. It takes me
twice as long. To me is just like I have too much to do. (Sarah)

I don’t know if I have done anything to really maintain it so much but I think
that might be because just my class load and stuff is like I just have one
French class and a lot of other classes. (Gena)

I want to add another activity to practice but due to my schedule and other
activities it is very hard to balance. At the beginning of the semester! was
writing to some friends with whom I went to Costa Rica but we have been
very busy. (Erika)

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Carol stated that her nursing major was her top priority and that it required a lot of time
and dedication. She explained how keeping both her nursing major and French minor
have affected her performance in French:

I really haven’t been working on my French. It is pretty disappointing but i am
a nursing major so that really takes priority for the most part. So going to
class, doing the reading is what I have been doing to keep up with my French.
I do speak French a lot with my roommate because we both take French
classes. I’m also planning another study abroad semester to Ghana so that’s
been taking a lot of my time. I haven’t been spending a lot of my time on my
French, which is disappointing.

Emily explicated how having a job prevented her from getting more involved with her
Spanish and went on explaining how hybrid classes (a combination of online class with
classroom meetings) could help her towards her Spanish learning goals:

In a perfect world! would not have a job. I would just have to come to school
every day and take Spanish at school every day and I feel that will learn so
much better that way. There should be a way that we could ensure more
daily practice. Some classes I have taken before like the hybrid class where
they have activities that we should do online and meet twice a week. That
was kind of experimental. But offer more on a regular basis would help

Stephanie and Kelsey expounded on how a state passed a law requiring elementary
teachers to have a major in one of the four core classes (math, science, English and social
studies) and how that law interfered with their goal of becoming Spanish majors:

l have always had interest in bilingual schools and dual emerging schools and
I have actually been doing biweekly observations in a dual language in [Rapid
City] where the morning is in English and the afternoon is in Spanish. I
thought that was a crazy goal but it has helped me to be in those
environments. Then I wanted to teach elementary and it is frustrating
because you cannot get Spanish certification to teach. If you want to teach
elementary you need a different major from Spanish because you should be
able to teach other subjects. There is a lot of politics behind it.

79

In their path to become proﬁcient in their target language, the students perceived
their language selves as part of other selves or as a stepping-stone to achieving other
selves. However, they also faced challenges that impeded some of the students from
moving closer to their language learning goals.

In sum, the students’ possible L2 selves were visions of themselves in the future
as ﬂuent and accurate speakers of the language. During and after their abroad experience,
the subjects looked for opportunities to make their PL2Ss more accessible in different
ways. However, when these students returned, they faced many challenges to keep their
vision alive. Most of the participants developed different strategies to keep that vision
alive and were able to visualize how their PL2 selves could help accomplish other
relevant possible selves. Some others experienced ﬁrst, a decline in their motivation due
to a lack of support and strategies and second, how other possible selves became more

relevant in their working self concept.

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CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION

The purpose of this study was to understand the role of study abroad programs in
the development of possible L2 selves and the effect of moving from a second language
to a foreign language context in the development of these possible L2 selves. From
interviews with twenty college students, it was found that ﬁrst, these students had
available possible L2 selves and clear goals to attain those selves before going abroad.
Second, once back at their home university, the subjects searched for opportunities in
which their possible L2 selves could become more accessible. Third, their academic
selves inﬂuenced the accessibility of their L23elves at different levels. Finally, their L2
selves inﬂuenced and were inﬂuenced by their other selves. These ﬁndings are discussed

in terms of what we know about possible selves and language motivation.

Goal Setting and L2 Self —A vailability
Before going abroad, the 20 study participants had evident expectations of what
they wanted to get out of their experience such as acquiring ﬂuency and cultural
knowledge. Therefore, one can say that this was a motivated group of language students
for two reasons. First, they chose to study abroad instead of staying home and taking
classes at their university. Second, they all had different purposes they wanted to achieve
(Wlodkowski, 1999). Markus and Ruvolo (1989) afﬁrmed that when one has a goal to

661”

achieve, it is the self or the that has the intent or the goal and it is this self-
representation that is a speciﬁc instigator of motivated or goal-oriented behavior.

Furthermore, these purposes were “multi-determined” (Lens, 2001). That is, several types

of goals fueled the motivation of students in this study. The students’ goals could be

81

grouped into three categories: intrinsic, extrinsic and integrative. The majority of the
subjects exhibited intrinsic motivation in which learning the language was a priority in
itself. Paula, for instance, stated that she chose to study in Mexico because she “really
wanted to learn the language” and that the best way was to be in the country. For some
others, their motivation was extrinsic or their motivating factors were external, i.e., going
abroad was another way to get the required language credits for their major or minor.
Other participants’ motives could be categorized under Gardner’s term “integrative
motivation.” For Gardner (2001), integrativeness relates to a genuine interest in learning
the second language in order to come closer to the L2 language community. Siena’s main
purpose, for example, was to be immersed in the culture so she could learn about Italian
people and so represents this concept of integrative motivation.

For the majority of the participants, the goals for their study abroad experience
were directly related to their language ability and their vision of themselves as ﬂuent
speakers of the language. For instance, Erika stated that she considered going abroad a
necessity if she wanted to improve her ﬂuency in a second language. Katie also affirmed
that if she wanted to advance in her target language ability, she needed to go overseas.
According to Norman and Aron (2003), these students exhibited available possible L2
selves. That is, most students were able to picture themselves as speakers of their target
language before their trip and consider their abroad sojourn an opportunity to get closer
to that vision of themselves as ﬂuent language speakers. Available possible selves could
provide incentives for action. Domyei (2009) asserts that possible selves can act as
“future self-guides” that can explain how someone is moved from the present to the

future. The majority of these students also had intrinsic goals or objectives that derived

82

from their inherent pleasure and interest in becoming ﬂuent speakers (Noels, 2001). Ryan
and Deci (2000) maintain that these feelings of enjoyment come from developing a sense
of competence over a voluntarily chosen activity. Most of the participants’ possible
selves comprised positive images as bilingual or ﬂuent and grammatically correct
speakers before going abroad. However, one of the participants, Victoria, had an
available “negative self” or feared self before going abroad, namely, a negative outcome
that the individual should seek to avoid (Ryan, 2006):

Istudied the language but I’m terrible at languages and I’m terrible at English

and I’m terrible at French. 50 I figure if! went back at least I would be a little

bit better. I chose the internship because I think it’s so much better to learn

and be with the people. I know different people that went on different

programs and they said it was so great we went with my friends. We talk all

the time and they spoke English. In the internships there were four of us that

went and I didn’t see any other American people and at my job no one spoke

English. And at my home stay no one spoke English so is the best way to kind
of learn.

Victoria’s motivation, to change her actual feared self was the main reason to embark in
her abroad sojourn. Her thoughts about what was likely allowed her to construct a
possible L2 self that was different from the present one (Markus and Nurius, 1987).
Furthermore, she had a possible self and a feared self in the same domain (i.e., ﬂuent
language speaker), which according to Dbmyei (2001) is a powerful combination to keep
us moving forcefully towards achieving one’s goals. Oyserman and Markus (1990)
argued that a desired possible self would have maximal motivational effectiveness when
a counteracting feared possible self in the same domain offsets this desired self. Others,
however, did not have available language selves before going abroad but they had

extrinsic goals that provided different purposes such as to be able to graduate faster and

83

 

get college credits. They were also very motivated about their study abroad experience
and very eager to ﬁnd out what this experience could mean for them afterwards. This
particular group of students had more available ought selves that inﬂuenced their
motivation to go abroad. Higgins (1987) deﬁnes ought self as a representation of
attributes that one believes one must possess and which bear little resemblance to one’s
own desires. For instance, the sense of obligations or responsibilities that one holds at a
particular time, in the case of this study, the obligation or commitment to graduate or to
complete their language major or minor.

Once at their destination, the students’ possible L2 selves were more accessible.
That is, they were surrounded by opportunities that would allow them to become closer to
these selves. For instance, living with a local family required them to be users of the
language in order to negotiate meaning in authentic situations such as lunchtime or
during family celebrations. They were able to move from being language learners in a
classroom to being language speakers in the target language corrununity. According to
Norman and Aron (2003), “the more easily the possible self can be brought into
awareness, the more attention will be paid to it, and the more inﬂuence it will have on the
individual’s behavior” (p. 501). During interviews, the participants explained the
importance of immersion in their goal to become ﬂuent L2 speakers and that their
experiences beyond the classroom were the most positive and beneﬁcial for their
learning. Most of the students were able to take their language learning experiences
beyond the classroom and realized that their learning could be embedded in the context of

everyday life. Carol, for instance, stated:

84

I felt for the first time I was able to speak French. It’s one thing to be able to
speak in French in class but to be able to live, exist...lt takes an amount of
ability in order to order food, to buy in a store. It takes a certain amount of
effort .You don’t need to be perfect but it was really gratifying just to be able
to do that.

Furthermore, Markus and Nurius (1986) proposed that possible selves, once activated
into working memory and made accessible to the individual’s conscious mind, act as a
motivating element to actually attain these selves. During their abroad sojourn, many of
the participants invested much effort and resources in seeking out opportunities to
become ﬂuent speakers. Many used strategies such as the “No-English” rule or created
situational vocabulary lists to expand their language learning experience while others
embraced challenges such as “getting lost” as opportunities to attain their possible L2
selves:

...situations like that, not just sitting at home speaking Spanish to each other
and to our mom but the situation you know like the bus, the taxi, even just
going to restaurants and all those things forced us. It made me want to go
out the next day and do something else where I was, you know, forced to
really thinking and explained myself in a language that is not my first.
(Stephanie)

Other participants tried to avoid situations that could potentially take them away from

their goal to become ﬂuent such as not allowing the locals to speak to them in English:

Whenever! went out it seemed like anyone I’d talk to spoke English to me,
which was kind of discouraging sometimes because I was like no I am trying
to speak Spanish to you so stop trying to make things easier for me and for
yourself. Like obviously they wanted to get the conversation and the business
over with, so they speak English for our benefit but I was like so frustrating
sometimes like in the market or at a restaurant sometimes. (Kelsey)

85

il'

ant

Kelsey explained how discouraged she felt about people trying to speak English to her.
She was very conscious about the importance of expressing herself in Spanish at every
moment in order to become ﬂuent.

Once back at the home institution, the students articulated a noticeable
representation of themselves in the future as ﬂuent speakers and correct users of their
target language. From a possible selves’ perspective the majority had available possible
L2 selves that could translate into a greater motivation to attain or to avoid that possible
self (Markus & Nurius, 1987; Norman & Aron, 2003; Ryan, 2006). The present ﬁndings
are consistent with Norman and Aron’s (2003) study. Their ﬁndings indicated that the
availability of an event or scenario is predictive of behavior associated with that event
and that the possibility for the motivation to attain that possible self will increase. Ruvolo
and Markus (1992) afﬁrmed, “by envisioning possible self, one may anticipate, and
perhaps actually experience, some of the effect associated with the end state” (p.97).

However, these L2 selves were not the only selves in some of the students’
perceptions of their future. A number of participants had other possible selves available at
the onset of the semester such as a working self, an academic self, and a mother self.
These other selves were even more noticeable and available than their L2 selves. For
example, when Rachel was asked about her ﬁrture with regard to her Spanish ability, she
immediately replied that she wanted to become a nurse and that ideally she would be able
to work within a Spanish community so she could put those two goals together. Jill also
replied that she could see herself working in a non-nonproﬁt organization helping non-
English speaking families get situated in new places. She stressed the importance of a

type of social work in her future. This corroborates the principle that possible selves can

86

be multidimensional and dynamic, i.e., they can change over time and the participants
can face potential multiple goals (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Norman & Aron, 2003;
Ruvolo & Markus, 1992). Although all possible selves have the potential to inﬂuence
current behavior, some are more likely to do so than others (Hoyle & Sherill, 2006).
Furthermore, a possible self could lose its signiﬁcance to the subject if it conﬂicts with
other more relevant possible selves, lacks clear self-regulatory actions, or because it was
difficult for this possible self to sustain self-regulatory effort (Oyserman, Bybee, & Terry,
2006). Carol’s possible nursing self, for example, was more salient than her possible
French self at the moment of the second interview. The latter was interfering with the
former in that it was delaying her goal to become a nurse due to the extra amount of
classes she needed to take in order to get her French minor. She admitted at that point that
she just wanted to ﬁnish taking her French classes so she could concentrate on her
nursing mayor and graduate. Later in this chapter, I explain in depth the inﬂuence that
these different possible selves have in the development of the students’ possible
L2selves.

In sum, the participants were already highly motivated before their abroad sojourn
with clear sets of goals and available images of themselves as ﬂuent speakers of the
language. Once at their location, they shaped myriad opportunities to work towards the
development of their L2 selves by embracing experiential learning opportunities and by
developing different strategies that could help them enhance their learning experiences
and move closer to their L2 selves. For many participants this abroad language
experience allowed them to visualize themselves as speakers of the language rather than

just learners of the language.

87

L2 Self —Accessibility

As previously stated, the subjects from the study were motivated about their trip
abroad and the impact of this experience on their L2 development and future careers.
Once abroad, they were able to explore different venues for learning and took advantage

of every opportunity to move closer to their possible L2 selves. Being abroad offered the

3'

students multiple moments for their L2 selves to emerge and become accessible to them.

This accessibility motivated the students to invest many resources such as time and effort

 

in their goal of becoming ﬂuent and accurate speakers of the L2. Norman and Aron’s

(2003) study conﬁrmed that accessibility in relation to a possible self increased

 

motivation to attain or to avoid that possible self as “the greater the accessibility of a
knowledge structure, the more attention it will receive” (p.505). The authors stated that
once activated, the possible selves act as a motivating element to actually attain these
possible selves.

Most students exhibited a strong L2 identity as speakers of the target language
when they came back from abroad. The subjects recounted several instances in which
they automatically spoke in the target language when they had to use their native
language. Lee and Oyserman (2007) explained that life phases or changes in social
contexts increase the salience of relevant possible-selves. For my participants, it was the
effect that the study abroad context exerted over their ﬂuency and accurate possible L2
self. Kelsey, for instance, could not believe she could not speak Spanish all the time once
back and when she would talk to her American friends, she would use some Spanish
expressions in her conversations. When Rachel came back from her journey to Spain, it

took her more time to get used to her hometown again than it took to acquaint to Spain.

88

After returning to the States, the participants were even more energized to
continue working on their possible L2 selves-representations. Most of them had their own
language goals to accomplish such as improving grammar, working towards ﬂuency and
maintaining their language gains. Moreover, these students exhibited different types of
strategic learning behaviors9 (Domyei, 2005) in order to make their possible LZSelves
more accessible. Some participants like Steve had elaborate and well thought-out

approaches to continue learning. For instance, he enrolled in four Spanish classes so he

 

could have more “Spanish exposure” and therefore, get closer to being ﬂuent:

 

To involve myself in many classes, I will have lots of opportunities to continue
learning. I just come to class every day speaking Spanish and I go home and
study Spanish, and I go to work and continue doing that and I continue to
involve myself four days a week with that much Spanish. It’s like keeping
myself busy with Spanish to the point that I cannot speak English. That’s the
closest setting to Mexico, engulfing myself so much in Spanish that I don’t
have an opportunity to speak English. That’s how I’m going to learn.

Steve understood the importance of language immersion in his goal to become a ﬂuent
speaker. Therefore, he tried to replicate his abroad experience by enrolling in many
Spanish classes.

Rachel expressed excitement about her Spanish classes because she felt they were
the only chance to continue using the target language. In order to have more opportunities
to use her Spanish, she decided to choose Spanish courses that met three days rather than
two. For Rachel and Steve, their language classes became one of the most vital resources

in the goal to become closer to their possible L2 selves. Other participants were very

 

9 Dbmyei (2005) deﬁnes strategic Ieaming as a purposeful effort to select and then pursue Ieaming
procedures that the students believe will increase their individual Ieaming effectiveness.

89

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proactive and began looking for opportunities for that self to continue being accessible
even before classes started. Stephanie, Victoria, and Paula, for instance, contacted several
friends who they knew were native speakers of their target language as soon as they
arrived from their abroad sojourn. They asked their friends to meet once a week to help
them practice their L2 language. Others used different means such as watching movies
and listening to music in the target language to keep their gains. One can observe
different approaches in their commitment to retaining their language gains and attaining
their possible ﬂuent and accurate L2selves.

From the possible selves’ perspective, these students tried to reproduce the high
level of L2 self accessibility in the United States that they experienced abroad because it
allowed them to continue moving forward towards their goal of becoming ﬂuent or at
least keeping their gains in the target language. Others had less sophisticated strategies
such as listening to music or watching videos only. One can infer that at this point, some
students had greater accessible possible L2 selves than others and that these different
levels of accessibility could inﬂuence their motivation towards the attainment of these
possible selves later in their future. Furthermore, some students faced difﬁculties with the
availability of resources and time to make their possible L2 selves accessible. For
example, students whose target languages were French and Italian, expressed that where
they lived, it was very difﬁcult, “almost impossible,” to ﬁnd French and Italian native
speakers. Nevertheless, some of them were able to ﬁnd other ways to move forward with
their language goals. Victoria became a French major after her abroad experience so she
could have more exposure to the language. She also decided to volunteer as a translator at

an institution that provided services for refugees. Gena, on the other hand, did not have

90

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time to become involved with speaking French. Her nursing classes were very demanding
and she did not have opportunities to speak in French. She said, “I would be more likely
to use more French terms and phrases if I were around peOple who knew French.” Even
though Victoria and Gena both have possible French selves, Victoria’s L2 possible self
was more salient therefore; she was more invested in becoming ﬂuent. On the other hand,
Gena’s nursing self was more relevant and accessible for her at that moment and that is
why she was more devoted to its attainment.

In addition to holding positive images of the L2 self one looks forward to
becoming, possible selves include concerns for the future and the self-images one fears or
wishes to avoid (Lee & Oyserman, 2007). Some students expressed concerns about the
possibility of regressing in their language abilities or moving farther away from their
Possible L2 selves. They contemplated the possibility of losing ﬂuency and grammatical
accuracy due to circumstances such as lack of time, less possible L2 self-accessibility,
and the presence of other stronger possible selves that might affect their motivation to
pursue achieving these possible selves. However, some of the students including Victoria
and Steve were able to strategize so they could continue moving forward to their ideal L2
selves. Others, like Gena and Joy, had other stronger and more relevant ideal selves than
their possible L2 selves. Therefore, these other possible selves became more salient and
their possible L2 selves less signiﬁcant. For Gena, it was her nursing possible self and for
Joy it was her working self:

Like I said I really want to have a job where I can speak Spanish but because

of mostly money and some medical stuff! need to have health insurance so I

have to take whatever I can get after graduation. So if that happen, i guess I

have to find my own way to keep speaking Spanish but I am really afraid that
I’m going to lose it. (Jay)

91

Joy’s working self was more salient and relevant than her possible L2 self. Therefore, her
feared self, i.e., not a Spanish speaker, became more available.

According to the literature, when feared possible selves are paired with positive
expected ones, important motivational consequences happen (Lee & Oyserman, 2007;

Oyserman, Bybee, & Terry, 2006). According to Lee and Oyserman (2007), “Balanced ﬂ

\b

possible selves promotes attainment because linking a positive expected self to a feared
self in the same domain pinpoints motivation to both work toward a positive future goal

and to anticipate and strategize how to get around problems that may result in getting

 

'W. _ .I

closer to one’s feared possible self” (p.41). In Victoria and Steve’s cases, one can infer
that they had balanced possible selves. In Gena and Joy’s cases, their possible and feared
selves were not balanced. Therefore, other more relevant selves became more important
to the expense of probably losing their possible L2 self.

To conclude, at the beginning of the semester back alter being abroad, the
participants had clear possible L2 selves they wanted to acquire. However, they realized
that they needed to work harder after returning to campus on ﬁnding opportunities for
that self to emerge and be more accessible. The most motivated students made use of
elaborate strategies to continue in their process of becoming ﬂuent and accurate in the
target language. Others less motivated or whose possible L2 selves were less salient made
use of more simplistic strategies such as listening to music in order to maintain their
gains. Some participants faced challenges such as time and other more relevant selves
that inﬂuenced their involvement and motivation to continue moving towards their ideal
L2 selves. The majority of the students also had the presence of the feared self they did

not want to become. However, the ones who were highly motivated were able to plan

92

strategies that could help them move closer to their more ideal self. The participants who
did not have a salient possible L2 self were not able to strategize as much about how to

get closer to this L2 self.

L2 Self and Academic Self

At the onset of the semester and after their abroad experience, all of the
participants had a clear vision about where they wanted to be in terms of their language
ability. Many of them had already started working towards their ideal L2 self by looking
for opportunites that would help them reach their desired vision. They also had plans to
keep moving forward towards their ﬂuent and accurate possible L2 selves. Markus and
Nurius (1986) afﬁrmed that the possible selves construct gives form, speciﬁcity,
direction, and imagery to an individual’s goals and aspirations: “it is the possible self that
puts the self into action that outlines the likely course of action” (Markus and Nurius,
1987, p.159). After her return from Mexico, Paula went straight into 300 level Spanish
classes after only 1 year of basic Spanish at her home university. She volunteered in her
sister’s middle school Spanish classroom where there were many Latinos. At the moment
of the interview, she was planning on going abroad the following semester to the
Dominican Republic because she wanted to become ﬂuent. For Christine, French became
a part of her daily life and she tried to take every opportunity she could in order to
continue honing her French abilities. Studying abroad provided this group of students not
only with the possibility to speak and learn a foreign language but also with a strong
image of a possible future as speakers of that language. They came back feeling
motivated about what they had achieved and were ready to keep investing in their gains

(Wlodkowski,1999).

93

 

At the beginning of the semester, after their abroad experience, the students held
expectations about what they wanted to gain from their language classes. For the majority
of the subjects, language classes were not only instrumental in their goal to become ﬂuent
and accurate language speakers but also provided them with the opportunity for their
possible L2 self to be more accessible and for their feared L2 self to be less accessible.
Simons et al. (2000) explain that a sense of purpose for the future is an important factor
in moving individuals to engage in activities perceived to be instrumental in achieving

valued future outcomes. Leondari (2007) says, “perceived instrumentality is an

 

individual’s recognition that his or her current behavior is instrumental to achieving a J;
valued ﬁrture goal” (p.19). For instance, students like Steve wanted to take as many

classes as his schedule would allow so he could continue moving towards his goal of

becoming ﬂuent. Victoria, also, decided to take a French course about Africa because she

expected to go there in the future and her focus was to learn more about the country.

Others, like Carol, were hoping that her French class would help them to avoid a feared

L2 self and get closer to their ideal L2 self. She said:

My biggest expectation is just to get a good idea of grammar, it is a grammar
class. I’ve never been good at grammar and hopefully, a class completely
focused on grammar will help me because I’ve got the conversational thing
by going to France. I got that and hopefully now I can master grammar.

Carol experienced a sense of optimism about the likelihood of attaining her goal of
mastering grammar by enrolling in that particular grammar class. From the self
perspective, Carol’s desired and undesired possible selves served to promote instrumental
action designed to decrease the discrepancy between her current L2 self and her ideal L2
self (Cross & Markus, 1991). By holding temporary negative feelings about her L2 self,

Carol could become more accurate when speaking French. Higgins’ (1987) Self-

94

Discrepancy theory suggests that differences between one’s current sense of self and
future selves causes discomfort, which in turn motivates a person to increase resemblance
between the two selves in order to reduce that feeling of discomfort.

The study participants also noticed signiﬁcant changes due to their abroad
experience not only in their self-perceptions as language speakers from language learners
but also in their goal orientation. They were more task goal oriented than performance F
oriented lo(Simons et al., 2000). They felt more conﬁdent about their abilities, they took
more risks about making mistakes, and they found that their purposes to be in the

language classroom became more meaningful and more focused. They valued when their

 

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classes offered community involvement and further opportunities for possible L2 selves
to be accessible. That is, they wanted more authentic and meaningful scenarios in and
outside of the classroom that would allow them to continue working on their ﬂuency and
accuracy as speakers of their target language. Research on the possible selves’
perspective supports the view that students with a positive perception of the
instrumentality of school work to attain future goals are more motivated for school tasks,
make more use of effective learning strategies, and perform better (Leondari, 2007).
According to Bandura (1988) the stronger the belief students have in their capabilities,
the greater and more persistent are their efforts.

At the moment of the second interview, in the middle of the semester, the group
of students reported they were facing some challenges in regards to their language
learning goals. The ﬁrst challenge was the lack of support between their possible L2

selves’ goals and their experiences in the classroom. Some participants attended their

 

l . . . . .

0 Task goal oriented students focus on Ieaming, take challenging tasks and believe errors provrde
information that guides their Ieaming. Performance oriented students want to demonstrate their competence
and take on less challenging tasks that guarantee success (Ames, I992a in Simons et al., 2000).

95

classes with the desire to become more ﬂuent and more accurate. However, what the
classes offered to them was contrary to their expectations. These classes emphasized
more lecturing and offer very few chances for oral communication and active
involvement. Furthermore, participants found that taking the classes with other students
who were not as invested in becoming ﬂuent speakers was very discouraging because
these students would not make the effort to use the language in the classroom and would
constantly default to English. Participants felt that the most instrumental of the
opportunities to achieve their goals, i.e., the language classroom, was actually
undermining their chances to accomplish their possible L2 selves’ goals. The third
challenge was related to the type of class. For some of the students, taking mandatory
literature classes was contradictory to their notion about majoring and minoring in their
target language. They considered that the focus on literature was not congruent with their
understanding of language learning. For these participants, learning a language was
related to the ability to communicate ﬂuently and accurately in that language.

An interesting ﬁnding was that the participants exhibited different levels of
perceived control during these challenges. In the context of possible selves, perceived
control:

is the degree to which individuals believe their behaviours can influence the
attainment or avoidance of a possible self. If individuals believe they have
control over attaining or avoiding a possible self, they will be more inclined to
take the necessary steps to do so. (Norman & Aron, 2003, p.501)

Norman and Aaron’s (2003) study supports the notion that if individuals consider they
have control over accomplishing (or avoiding) a particular possible self, motivation

relevant to this possible self will be greater. On the one hand, there are students like Steve

96

who found it very difﬁcult to deal with other students from the class that only wanted to
talk in English. He said:

When I do group projects with people in my class, when we get together you
know. It is in English and not in Spanish. It is kind of hard being around an
English community when you want to speak Spanish.

However, it is clear to Steve that the control is in his hands: “A lot of it is what I make an

 

effort to do; it is not what is available to me. It is what I make happen”. Therefore, he :—
decided to ﬁnd other ways such to keep practicing by acquiring language learning 4
software and by subscribing to XM radio so he could access the Spanish channels.

Rachel’s class did not provide opportunities for oral communication, which she found Lg

very frustrating since her main goal was to improve her ﬂuency and pronunciation.
However, she also exhibited a degree of control over this situation:

My class now it’s fine but is not like encouraging but like it has not really
affected it that much my desire to learn more because I’m going to Peru. I’m
going to work on an orphanage for six weeks and I don’t think my class has
made me change. I am as excited to keep on.

Maria had a similar experience in her class. Therefore, she decided to take advantage of
the tutoring center and created spaces in her schedule so she could meet with a tutor in
order to continue working on her ﬂuency. For Stephanie, the challenge was not being
able to enroll in a class because it was full. Nevertheless, she decided to volunteer in an
ESL program where she served as a pen pal for two young kids, one from Mexico and
from Honduras. Stephanie also felt that the control of her Ieaming was in her hands and
that if she wanted to become ﬂuent, she did not need someone else to tell her what to do:
“I don’t have someone telling me what I need to do to continue and getting closer to

being bilingual and to be ﬂuent”. Steve, Rachel, Maria, and Stephanie had speciﬁcally

97

elaborated possible L2 goals that allowed them to energize and organize their
performance even in the face of difﬁcult situations such as not being able to get into a
class or get additional help from other people (Leondari, Syngollitou, & Kiosseoglou,
1998). One can infer that these students had dominant possible L2 selves that gave rise to
generalize feelings of control and optimism. These feelings allowed them to work around
the complications and inﬂuenced their behavior to persist towards their intrinsic goal of
acquiring ﬂuency (Ruvolo & Markus, 1992).

On the other hand, students like Carol not only dealt with challenges in her

French grammar class but also with her nursing major. For Carol, her advanced French

 

II"- {1' I'Yfﬂgu

grammar class was a source of anxiety. She felt that she could not give the time and the
dedication required to learn the essential grammar structures due to her other demanding
nursing classes. F urtherrnore, the fact that she was not surrounded by French in the same
way as she was in France made her performance in her French classes very difficult and
frustrating. This lack of preparation and L2 self accessibility prompted her to feel really
frustrated and even questioned her decision to pursue French rather than Spanish, which
would be more relevant in her career as a nurse. Her motivation to pursue her L2 goals
was very low:

I’m kind of at a dead end like I really cannot learn any more. It is not sticking.
It is frustrating. I don’t really know because you might think that after you
have been immersed in the language as long as I was, you might think that it
would be easier but really what stuck with me was conversational and that
has stuck with me a lot so the grammar part, I don’t know, I think it is
probably that I haven’t been dedicating a lot of time. It takes a lot of
dedication and a lot of time commitment to sit down and study and I have
not been giving that.

98

Possible selves are powerful motivators but they can also be vulnerable. Unless
tentative positive self-views are particular well elaborated or intentionally invoked and
reafﬁrmed, they may easily leave the working self- concept to be replaced by negative
possibilities (Markus & Nurius, 1987). The combination of several types of forces
inﬂuenced the relevance and likelihood of Carol’s possible L2 self in her working-self
concept11 and therefore, inﬂuenced her efforts to attain it. First of all, at the moment of
the second interview Carol’s possible L2 self was neither salient nor accessible. At this
moment, she was more invested in her nursing self than in her possible L2 self since she
did not believe that her possible French self was worth pursuing or investing any effort in
it (Oyserman, Bybee, & Terry, 2006). Second, her goals to go abroad were mainly
extrinsic, that is, goals to achieve some instrumental end. Carol’s main goal to go abroad
was to get the credits required for her French minor. The literature in goal motivation
stresses that intrinsic goals are stronger predictors of increase in motivation than extrinsic
goals. Noels, Pelletier, Clement, and Vallerand’s (2003) study found that having external
pressures does not reliably predict effort, persistence and attitude. “Rather, it might be
expected that such people will be involved in the activity as long as the contingency is
present but less involved if it is withdrawn” (N oels, 2001, p.50). Third, she did not have a
perceived control over her goal of becoming grammatically accurate in French, which
might have inhibited any attempt to achieve it (Norman & Aron, 2003). Erika’s
challenges in her three language classes were ﬁrst the focus on literature and the less

“real” content of the material used in class. She conﬁded that this focus caused her to lose

 

11 The working —self concept is that set of self-conceptions that are presently accessible in thought and
memory (Markus & Nurius, 1987)

99

 

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l

interest saying, “It doesn’t excite me the way just been surrounded by Spanish does”.
Second, her lack of conﬁdence in her speaking ability:

I am still nervous and I don’t want to. Around certain professors I don’t feel as
comfortable. I want to pass that but I have that mental block. I think it is the
image of the professor that I have built up about them in my mind. It is not
necessarily that they are harder to speak to it just happens like that for me.

Even though Erika’s possible self was still available (she still envisioned a future as a
bilingual speaker), it was not as accessible as her feared L2 self, that is, a non-bilingual
speaker. Since her feared L2 self was more salient and accessible, her motivation to

incorporate detailed strategies that could have increased the likelihood of becoming

 

bilingual decreased. Erika also mentioned that it was very difﬁcult to engage in more
activities to practice the language due to her busy schedule. Oyserman et al.’s (2004)
study suggested that for the subjects’ possible selves to inﬂuence long term and outcomes
that are difﬁcult to change like participation in class and time spent in homework,
individuals not only need to wish for success but they also need to articulate how they
will get there. Erika stated that the conﬁdence she once had was gone and that she did not
know why. She also expressed how her nervousness was keeping her from showing what
she actually learned. One can say that Erika’s actions were fueled by external motivators
such as being a language major: “First of all, I am Spanish major and [professors] highly
recommend that you go abroad” and professors’ endorsement of her abilities. This means
that her possible bilingual self was motivated by extrinsic goals as Carol’s possible
French self. From a possible self perspective, Erika’s conﬁdence in her language
performance was being undermined and this fact combined with a salient L2 feared self,
external motivators and a lack of strategies to move towards her possible L2 self could

have contributed to lower her motivation to attain her bilingual possible self.

100

In sum, the study participants faced some academic challenges that could have
undermined the potential for their L2 possible selves to inﬂuence motivational behaviors
to attain their language goals. However, this study showed that those participants with
salient possible L2 selves, intrinsic goals, and speciﬁc behavioral strategies to attain those
goals and some level of control over these strategies were able to overcome those
challenges and maintain their motivation to achieve their possible L2 selves. On the other
hand, those participants who had less salient possible L2 selves, extrinsic goals and no
behavioral strategies either abandoned their possible L2 self goals or experienced a

decreased in their motivation to attain those goals.

 

1. "‘3” ‘- Iv" ..-“' ' '
.1

L2 Self and Other Selves

As stated before, the possible self construct is thought to inﬂuence the motivation
process in two ways: ﬁrst, by providing a clear goal to strive for or to avoid, and second,
by energizing an individual to pursue the actions necessary for attaining those goals
(Markus & Ruvolo, 1989). This construct is also dynamic, complex, contextually
interactive, and evolving (Rossiter, 2007). An individual can hold an array of salient
possible selves that vary according to valence, temporal placement, and level of
elaboration, accessibility and perceived control (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Norman &
Aron, 2003). These possible selves, when they are activated into one’s thinking, become
part of what is called the working self-concept.

The students from this study experienced these salient possible selves at many
levels. First, there was a group of students, who envisioned their salient L2 selves as a
stepping-stone to get other prominent selves. For instance, one-half of the students

considered how becoming ﬂuent and grammatically accurate would help them to achieve

101

other selves such as a nursing self or a teacher self. These students were able to combine
compelling and accessible possible selves that would help them to move towards valued
outcomes (Markus & Ruvolo, 1989). Another group of students were able to hold
additional possible selves together with a possible L2 self without one depending on the
other. For example, Katie wanted to become an ambassador in a Spanish speaking
country so her love for Spanish together with her love for Law could be combined in one

job. Jill and Jane wanted to ﬁnd a job in non-proﬁt organizations where they could

 

become instrumental in helping people from their target language community. From a

possible self-perspective theory, these students held equally balanced possible selves -

 

that is, possible selves that are both salient and accessible. This balance could allow them
to have more varied motivational resources and more control over their behavioral drive
(Markus & Ruvolo, 1989). Finally, there was a small group of students who had at some
point salient possible selves competing for the students’ resources such as time and
commitment and whose possible L2 selves became less salient and less accessible.
Carol’s French self for instance became less relevant to the point that she even questioned
if having dedicating so much time to French was really worth it. Sarah’s academic
performance self (i.e., getting good grades) was a priority for her, therefore, she was not
able to get involved in more extracurricular activities that would have allowed her to
become closer to her ideal L2 self. According to Markus and Ruvolo (1989) “unless
one’s possible selves derive from the domains of one’s current involvement, and
expertise, they are unlikely to be particularly effective in regulating performance”
(p.213). Carol and Sarah’s possible L2 selves were inconsequential in their attainment of

their nursing self and academic performance self.

102

The study’s data show that the students exhibited different degrees of language
Ieaming motivation before, during, and after the abroad sojourn. Nineteen out of the
twenty students had already fulﬁlled the general education requirement of three semesters
of language study when they decided to go abroad. Siena was the only one in the group
not enrolled in a language course before going abroad. One can infer that this group of
students was already motivated before going abroad and that the possibility of PL2 .
selves’ availability was high. However, these participants experienced different degrees
of PLZSelves’ salience before, during, and after their abroad experience that affected their

motivation to attain the future image of themselves as accurate and ﬂuent language

 

speakers.

The subjects could be divided in four groups according to their PLZS salience
level. One group represents those students with salient PL2 selves’ images before going
abroad and who were able to maintain those vivid PL2S images during their SA
experience and after they return despite the challenges they faced. In this group, we ﬁnd
Steve who had a clear vision of himself as a ﬂuent Spanish speaker before going abroad
and who developed different strategies in order to increase accessibility during the SA
and after he came back to his home institution. The second group represents those
students with salient PL2 selves before and during the SA. However, when they returned
to their home institution, they faced challenges that affected their motivation to attain
their PL2 selves’ and the relevance of those PL2Ss in the students’ working self concept.
Erika, for instance, had a clear image of herself in the future as a ﬂuent Spanish speaker
before and during her abroad sojourn. However, when she came back, she found that her

classes were not supporting that ﬂuent image and that it was difﬁcult to ﬁnd other ways

103

to move towards the achievement of her PL2 self. Her motivation in attaining her ﬂuent
PL2 self had dropped and there was a risk that her PL2S could vanish from her working
self concept. The third group represents those with a vague future image of themselves as
accurate and ﬂuent L2 speakers before going abroad. However, the students’ experiences
during their SA helped those vague images become more salient and that allowed them to
create clear strategies to attain those salient images after they came back from their
abroad sojourn. Emily, for instance decided to go abroad just for fun. However, when she

experienced being surrounded by the language during her abroad sojourn, her PL2self

 

became more salient. Once back, she implemented a series of strategies that allowed her
PL2 self to be accessible.

The ﬁnal group characterizes those students with vague PL2Ss before the abroad
experience but they become more salient during their abroad sojourn. However, once
back their motivation for language learning diminished. These students’ PL2selves
disappeared from their working self concept and other more relevant PSs became salient.
In this group we ﬁnd Carol who decided to go abroad to get credits for her French minor
as a way to ﬁnish it quickly so she could concentrate on her more relevant nursing self.
At the moment of the focus group interview, she questioned her decision to pursue
French due to the amount of time that her French classes were taking away from her
nursing major. The following chart illustrates the different degrees of PL2 Ss salience and

its impact in the subjects’ motivation.

104

Table 3 Possible L2 Selves Levels of Salience

 

 

 

Students Before the Abroad During the Abroad After the Abroad Experience
Experience Experience
1. Paula, Reasons to go Motivated actions Motivated actions
Stephanie, m
Kelsey, - To become an -Looking for more -Looking for language use

Steve, Jane
and Jill.

 

2. Erika,
Joy, and
Sarah

accurate and ﬂuent
speaker.

-To experience and
understand the
culture.

-To be better in the
language.

 

3. Victoria,
Katie,
Christine,
Maria,
Emily,
Siena,
Gena,
RacheL
Margarita,
and
Isabelle

 

 

4. Carol

 

-To get course
credits.

-For fun.

-Being suggested
by professors.

 

 

ICU—I

language
exposure.
-|mplementing
rules such as the
”No English
allowed” rule.
-Embracing
challenges.
-Thinking of errors
as learning
opportunities.
—ldentifying
themselves as
language speakers

 

opportunities.

—A stronger language
speaker identity.
—Creation of learning
strategies.

-Visions of other PSs
together with PLZSs in
their future.

 

-Frustration with lack of
speaking opportunities in
the classes.

—Lack of learning
strategies.

—Dependant on language
classes for their PLZS to
be stronger.

- PLZSs vanishes from
their working self
concept.

 

ICU—I

IBIDEM

 

 

20"

 

IBIDEM

 

Groups two and three are especially important because they can illustrate the

inﬂuence of PLZSs in language Ieaming motivation. Erika, Joy and Sarah had salient

105

 

 

PLZSs before and during their abroad experience. However, when they came back they
faced academic challenges that undermined the existence of that PL2 self in their
working self concept. Furthermore, they were not able to articulate clear strategies to get
closer to their PLZSs after their SA experience that would have allowed them to retain
those PLZSs in their working self concept. Victoria’s group, on the other hand,
experienced how their SA sojourns helped them develop salient PL2Ss and together with
sets of clear strategies allowed them to face the different challenges when they returned

to their home institution.

The L2 Motivational Self System

The participants’ possible L2 selves’ development and their affect on their
language Ieaming motivation could be explicated by using Domyei’s (2009) L2
Motivational Self System. In an attempt to expand Gardner’s integrative motivation
concept, Domyei developed a model that would expand the integrativeness notion by
including cognitive concepts in order to explain language-learning motivation. Gardner
(2001) deﬁnes integrativeness as the desire to learn an L2 of a valued community so that
one can communicate with members of the community and sometimes even become like
them. However, many researchers have pointed out that the term is very ambiguous
because it does not clarify what the target of integration is and in many language-learning
environments such as Ieaming a language far from the target community, the use of that
term does not make much sense. Therefore, Domyei (2009) offers a model that takes into
account different language learning environments and places imagery or vision at the
center of his theory. Domyei feels that the secret of successful learners was their

possession of a “super ordinate vision that kept them on track” (p.25). He argues that for

106

some language learners the motivation to learn a language does not come from internally
or externally generated self images but rather from successful engagement with the actual
language learning process and divides it into three components: First, the Ideal L2 Self,
or possible L2 self, which is the L2-speciﬁc facet of one’s self. This is a powerful
motivator to learn the L2 because of the desire to reduce the discrepancy between our
actual and ideal selves. Victoria, for instance, considered herself terrible at languages but
yet, her desire to become better fueled her motivation to keep working on her French: “I
keep a list of every grammatical mistake I make because I’m so determined to be good at
it”. Steve’s ideal L2 self was also very salient. He wanted to become ﬂuent in Spanish
and once he came back from his abroad sojourn, he organized his schedule in order to
“engulf” himself in the language. Other students’ ideal L2 self were not that salient.
Carol’s, for instance, questioned her decision to minor in French because she did not see
its relevancy to her nursing major.

The second component is the Ought-to L2 self, which refers to the attributes that
one believes one ought to possess to meet expectations and to avoid possible negative
outcomes. It considers more extrinsic types of instrumental motives. Many subjects had
instrumental motives or exhibited ought-to L2 selves in their decisions to go abroad,
others held a combination of internal and external motives and exhibited ideal L2 selves
and ought L2 selves. Erika, for instance, decided to go abroad because she was a Spanish
major (ought-to self) and her professors highly recommended her to go abroad (extrinsic
motive). Jane wanted to improve her ﬂuency so she could help in a mission’s tn'p
(extrinsic) and decided that going abroad could help her with her ﬂuency (ideal L2 self)

and at the same time fulﬁll the practicum requirement for her major in human rights

107

 

(extrinsic). Gena’s decision to go abroad, for instance, was inﬂuenced by her interest in
French culture and the French language (internal motives) but also by the possibility to
get more experience for her international relations major (external motive).

The third component is the L2 learning experience, which considers the impact of
the teacher, the curriculum, the peer group, the experience of success in the students'
motivation. As previously discussed, different aspects of the L2 learning experience
affected the subjects’ motivation during their abroad experience and once back at their
home institution. During their abroad experience, the subjects’ ideal L2 selves were more

available and more accessible, which allowed them to create a stronger future vision of

 

themselves as ﬂuent speakers of the language. Jill recounted how encouraging it was for
her to be able to successfully communicate with her host family mainly during meal
times: “We would leave the table so impressed with ourselves on what we could get
across”. Margarita, on the other hand, described how frustrating it was to live with other
English speaking students who were not as invested as she was to become good at
Spanish. Therefore, she decided to befriend the locals in order to improve her ﬂuency: “I
said, I can’t speak English because my Spanish is not good enough... I need to learn. So I
did that and went out to a “pincho” bar and I made friends with the owners and they
would teach me how to do it”. Once back at their home university, many participants
experienced a disconnection between their ideal L2 selves and their experiences in the
classroom. Some students like Steve felt disappointed by taking classes with other
students who refused to speak in Spanish during and outside of class: “The only issue
would be that a lot of people rather speak English in Spanish class...” Others were

frustrated by the lack of speaking opportunities in the classroom and by the literature

108

focus of some classes. Erika felt that literature classes did not provide “real” language
contexts, which were vital in order to improve her language skills.

The L2 motivational Self System could explain the different degrees of
motivational inﬂuence exhibited by the participants’ possible L2 selves. According to
Domyei (2009), an ideal L2 self is an effective motivator if, ﬁrst, the learner has a
desired future self-image that is elaborate and vivid. The self-image needs to be perceived
as plausible and in harmony with the expectations of the leamer’s family, educators,
peers and other elements of the social environment. The image needs to be regularly
activated in the learner’s working self-concept, and accompanied by relevant and
effective procedural strategies that act as a road map towards the goal.

Finally, this image contains elaborate information about the negative
consequences of not achieving the desired end-state. It is important to look at how these
conditions translated into some of the subjects’ possible L2 selves’ development and
motivational actions. As previously explained, Steve’s salient self allowed him to
incorporate apparent Ieaming strategies in his desire to acquired a ﬂuent L2 self. He was
also able to move around the different obstacles he faced when he came back from his
abroad experience to his home institution (see ﬁgure 2). Katie’s possible L2 self, on the
other hand, was not as vivid as Steve’s. However, her experiences in the classroom were
the motivational forces to continue improving her language skills. According to Domyei
(2001), motivation forces originating from the language classroom have great inﬂuence
on how much effort students are willing to invest in language learning. Furthermore,
Katie’s possible Lawyer self was also present and even more salient than her ideal L2

self. However, she was able to envision both as part of her future. The combination of

109

great experiences in the classroom together with another salient self could explain why
Katie did not have a set of concrete action plans as Steve did. The following charts

illustrate Steve and Katie’s possible L2 selves within the L2 Motivational Self System:

 

 

V 1 r 1

Creating the vision MY Ultimate 8081 IS

 

 

 

 

ﬂuency"

L J L

V 1 V 1
"To be able to

communicate 100% with
the target community"

 

Strengthening the vision

 

 

L J L J

 

V 1
"classes have a lecture
focus and do not offer
many speaking
opportunities"

 

 

Substa ntiating the vision

 

r 1

"I involved myself in many
classes to keep me busy
with Spanish"

 

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

r 1 ( j

"I decided to enroll in 4

Keeping the vision alive —. ..
language classes

L J L J

 

 

r j r 1

"I bought XM radio so I can

Operationalismg the vusnon ——-— listen to Spanish radio"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L J L J
r 1 f 1
Counterbalancing the "I can't always talk with
vision the best grammar"

L J L J

 

 

Figure 2: Steve 's Motivational L2 Self System

110

 

‘ Creating the vision

T

 

Strengthening the
vision

T

 

"I hope to be an actual
ambassador either to Mexico or
Spain"

F W

 

L J

 

"I hope to progress as far as I
can, to be able to learn it as much
as possible"

 

 

Substantiating the
vision

 

 

Katie

 

 

 

 

A

F W

 

L J

 

"I do speak a lot in class"

 

 

"I feel a lot more confident"

 

r 1

"in my 313 hispanic culture
class, we have been doing a lot
of stuff within the community"

 

 

Keeping the vision
alive

 

 

Operationalising
the vision

 

Counterbalancing
the vision

 

”KT 7K

L J
F 1
"The link between the classroom
and the community is very
important. I am learning the
most in this class"

 

 

L J

 

1"I listen to a lot of music"

 

 

 

1
"I want to be able to read it a lot
better and that is why I am

taking the reading. It has been
frustrated"

 

Figure 3: Katie '5 Motivational L2 Self System

111

 

L J

 

Even though both Steve and Katie hold possible L2 selves, Steve has more
possibilities to keep moving towards his ideal L2 self aﬁer he ﬁnishes his language
classes because he exhibited a repertoire of self-regulatory strategies such as the decision
to buy a language software and XM radio. Katie, on the other hand, was more dependent
on what the classes offered her. At this point, it is not clear what will happen to Katie’s
possible L2 self aﬁer she ﬁnishes her language classes.

To conclude, this study supported the notion that possible selves are complex,
dynamic contextual and mutable. A person can have several active, relevant and salient
selves at one point but only those that are accessible, relevant and signiﬁcant to the
participants’ goals could remain in that individual’s working-self concept. The other
prominent possible selves will become less salient and could even disappear. Domyei’s
(2009) L2 motivational Self System illustrates how an ideal L2 self could be an effective
motivator provided there is a clear and plausible future self-image accompanied by

effective procedural strategies.

112

CHAPTER SIX

CONCLUSIONS

Study abroad experiences have proven to be vital in the ﬁeld of language Ieaming
not only from a linguistic perspective but also from a cultural perspective. Most of the
studies in this area focus on how these experiences have inﬂuenced the acquisition of
discrete grammatical terms and pronunciation skills. However, we know little about how
these experiences affect students’ motivation in their language learning process once they
return home to an area where they do not have the same availability of language practice
opportunities as abroad. Study abroad experiences make it easier for people to situate
their possible self in a target language speaking environment. This possible selves
construct offers an interesting approach to language learning motivation that looks more
closely at how the leamer’s goals and Ieaming decisions are related to personal meanings,
self-direction and determination. This construct offers a holistic perspective on language
learning motivation because it explains motivational behavior as an internal process of
identiﬁcation within the person’s self-concept, rather than identiﬁcation with an external
reference group as Gardner’s (1973) integrative orientation theoretical concept explains.

The purpose of this study was to understand the role of study abroad programs in
the development of possible L2 selves and the effect of moving from a second language
context to a foreign language one in the development of these selves. I interviewed
twenty college students at the beginning of the semester following their return from a
study abroad experience in order to inquire about the likelihood of students having
available L2 selves, their experiences abroad, and how these ideal selves might have

inﬂuenced motivational behaviors overseas. Then I did a focus group interview in the

113

 

middle of the semester in orderto explore how their L2 selves developed through the
contextual changes of returning to campus after studying abroad.

This study found that, for this group of students, their ideal L2 self was a ﬂuent
and accurate user of the target language. Subjects with salient L2 selves seized more
opportunities abroad to allow their L2 selves to be more available and more accessible.
Once at their abroad destination, some participants decided to implement rules such as
‘no English allowed” during their stay abroad. Others decided to make friends with the
locals as a way to have more language practice opportunities. Furthermore, this
accessibility helped participants develop an identity as speakers of the target language
with well-deﬁned salient ideal L2 selves.

Upon their return to the United States and at the beginning of the academic
semester, most of the students held available PL2 selves with evident L2 goals.
Consequently, they looked for opportunities to make these L2 selves as accessible as they
were abroad. For instance, some decided to minor or major in the language in order to
have more exposure. Others decided to get involved with the target community with the
aim of broadening their experiences in the target language.

Moreover, the subjects faced some challenges at their home institution that made
their possible L2 selves vulnerable to remaining salient in the students’ working self-
concept. For the majority of the subjects, language classes were very instrumental in their
goals to attain ﬂuency and accuracy and for some others, the only chance to access their
possible L2 selves. However, for a group of students, these classes did not facilitate the
much-needed opportunity to keep moving forward to the attainment of these selves. On

the one hand, the students, who had clear goals and well-deﬁned possible L2 selves were

114

 

able to overcome these challenges by designing strategies that compensated the lack of
opportunities offered in the classroom such as enrolling in several language classes or
getting involved in the target community programs at their local churches or community
centers. On the other hand, the students with less salient possible L2 selves had other
more relevant and vivid selves in their working self-concept and became less actively
involved in their language Ieaming. Gena, for instance, questioned her decision to minor I;-
in French and stressed the importance of nursing in her future.

Another interesting ﬁnding was the way in which other salient selves, different

 

from their L2 selves, became part of the subjects’ motivation to attain a possible L2 self I
or to jeopardize the existence of that L2 self in the subjects’ working self-concept. This
depicts how different possible selves can be interconnected through a web of life roles,
beliefs and identities that diverge in degree to which they are active and attached to the
present (Plimmer & Schmidt, 2007). These selves can either be well integrated with each
other (possible social worker self gets on well with possible L2 language self) or
fractured (my PL2 self is interfering with my more relevant nursing self).

These ﬁndings support the premise that individuals create mental representations
of themselves in future states (Markus & Nurius, 1986) and that these representations
combined with detailed strategies promote signiﬁcant motivational behaviors to goal
attainment. According to Markus and Nurius (1987), the possible self is the one “that puts
the self into action and that outlines the likely course of action” (p.159). This study also
supports the principle that those individuals with a well-elaborated representation of
themselves in a future state that is current in the domain of one’s present involvement and

expertise will be motivated and able to regulate effectively their performance even during

115

challenging times. On the other hand, if their possible selves are neither well elaborated
nor reafﬁrmed, then these possible selves could vanish from their working self-concept to
be replaced by negative possibilities or by other more salient selves. The more
availability and accessibility of a possible self and the more perceived control one has
over one’s behaviors, the more predictable is one’s motivation to either achieve or avoid
that possible self (Norman & Aron, 2003). Furthermore, this study supports the concept F
that possible selves are active, ﬂexible, dynamic and contextual. Moving from a second

language context to a foreign language one, some subjects’ L2 selves went from salient

 

and inﬂuential over their actions to being less salient or almost disappearing from the *
subjects’ working self— concepts. Subjects with a detailed self and clear strategy for
executing their L2 goals were able to maintain their possible L2 selves in their working-
self concept.

This study was able to exhibit how the motivational theory could proﬁt from this
concept in order to add a more individual and personal variable to understand why people
behave the way they do. Furthermore, it helps widen the scope of the motivational
language theory by considering a future perspective, which is not well explored and that
could provide interesting results in the way to enhance language Ieaming. Gardner’s
(1988) integrative orientation has inﬂuenced most of the research in language motivation
theory done to date. However, many researchers have pointed out that Integrativeness’
main premise “that the learner must be willing to identify with members of another ethno
linguistic group and take on very subtle aspects of their behavior” (Domyei, 2009, p.2)
falls short and does not consider contexts in which learners do not have the target

community available. By considering a perspective on an internal process of

116

identiﬁcation within the person’s self concept, rather than identiﬁcation with an external
reference group (Ushioda & Domyei, 2009), the concept of language motivation could be
enhanced by including a closer personal account. Finally, this research incorporated
foreign language contexts and other languages besides English that are not examined
often in the language motivation theory into the possible self-concept.

It is important to point out that the students from this study did not mention the

I"

use of technology as an option to help them move closer to their PLZSs once they came
back from their abroad sojourn. One could infer that the importance of technology in

order to sustain language Ieaming is not as obvious and that language departments should

 

emphasize the different possibilities that technology offers in the development and
availability of PLZSs in contexts where the target language community is not accessible.
Educators could beneﬁt from this research by offering more opportunities in the
classroom in order to facilitate students L2 selves’ availability and accessibility, and in
that way to enhance and possibly maintain students’ motivation to learn. Csizér and
Kormos (2009) state that the motivational forces that originate from the language
classroom have great inﬂuence on how much effort students are willing to invest in
language learning. According to Domyei (2009), language teachers have great resources
to create and keep the vision of possible L2 selves alive by creating communicative tasks.
For instance, by inviting role models to class, playing ﬁlms and engaging in cultural
activities, a language educator could make possible L2 selves available. Language
teachers with the help of technology could design experiences to help make an imagined
community visible or create one for learners, in which students’ discourses are linked to

this community. For instance, the use of communication software, chat protocols, or

117

 

Internet media could enhance the vision of these imagined communities. From this study,
one can afﬁrm that these instructional strategies are important to sustain the vision of a
. PL2 self especially when there is not a language community readily accessible with
which the student can interact.

Additionally, the possible selves construct could also offer instructors a way to
help struggling or less motivated students by presenting them with a meaningful L2 ..L
future to which they could relate. Domyei (2009) offers a six point self-based approach to

motivation that could be implemented by language instructors in order to increase

 

language-learning motivation. By helping learners create, strengthen, substantiate, keep,
strategize, and counterbalance a vision of ideal L2 selves, teachers can increase the
signiﬁcance of these selves in the students’ working-self concept in order to keep
students engaged in their language Ieaming. This approach can also take advantage of the
motivational effectiveness of a possible L2 self in the students’ achievement of their ideal
L2 selves. Furthermore, universities can maximize the study abroad experience by
designing more ﬂexible curricula that could support those experiences once the students
are back. That is, language departments could offer courses where there is less emphasis
on literature and more emphasis on language skills development or to provide a more
visible role of the literature in language learning.

Lave and Wenger (1991) afﬁrm that learning occurs in communities of practice
“with learners gradually moving from a position of legitimate peripheral participation
toward fuller participation through their engagement in interaction with more experienced
members” (in Lamb, 2009, p.230). Universities could also proﬁt from these abroad

sojourns by collaborating with international communities in the implementation of

118

 

agreements that would allow cultural exchanges via academic-centric instant messaging
systems that would expand the students’ opportunities for language practice. Looking at
study abroad experiences from the possible self-construct has shown that the exposure to
other cultures could offer signiﬁcant gains in addition to the increase in vocabulary and
improvement in pronunciation and grammar. It could enhance student motivation for
further learning and it could also inﬂuence a student’s language identity from being a Iii-3,
learner to being a speaker of that language. Since the learner gains are evident, and

universities and students have invested numerous resources such as time and money on

 

these abroad experiences, universities, especially language departments, should continue F J
beneﬁting from these gains by creating and maintaining more congruent curricula for
these students when they are back.

Finally, the results from this study could also present university ofﬁcials with a
way to approach student retention by looking at how the students’ possible selves could
assist these students to navigate the college arena more successfully. By sponsoring
programs that aim at creating, strengthening, and strategizing visions of ideal selves,
higher education institutions could capitalize on the motivational effectiveness of
students’ possible selves that could, at the same time, augment graduation rates.

Despite its accomplishments, this dissertation has its weaknesses. This study
could have beneﬁted from a longer period of data collection in order to gain a better
perspective of the development of possible selves. Additionally, some of the participants’
responses might have been inﬂuenced by other subjects’ answers in order to avoid
conﬂict during the focus group interviews, or by the knowledge that I was both the

researcher and a language instructor who takes students on study abroad experiences. It is

119

recommended that the next study make use of individual interviews in order to obtain
answers less inﬂuenced by group interactions. Finally, the use of diagrams or pictures
may complement the data collected from the interviews and the focus groups. Drawing
on the work of Cameron (1999), Al-Shehri (2009) emphasizes that the power of
imagination is critical to the process of visualizing possible or ideal selves. Thus,
drawings could better explain about a phenomenon that might be otherwise difﬁcult to
express with words.

Further research could explore if the presence of possible L2 selves in low
performing students is less salient than in higher performing students. How does the
presence or absence of possible L2 selves affect student performance in the classroom?
How different are English possible selves from other language possible selves in terms of
students’ motivation and language identity? How do possible L2 selves develop abroad?
Finally, how salient or non-salient are the possible L2 selves of students who were abroad
compared to students who have not been abroad?

The ﬁndings from this study show that the presence of possible L2 selves could
be powerful motivators for further engagement. The possible selves construct could
complement Astin’s (1999) student involvement theory by including a future perspective
that could better explain student engagement beyond the investment of student energy in
the academic experience. Furthermore, this dissertation contributes to the growing body
of possible L2 selves’ research by considering different contexts in the development of
these selves. However, there is still much to learn about the language learning experience

that cuts across nationality and culture. There is also a need for more research in order to

120

 

 

 

provide a practical perspective on the potential of possible selves in the motivational

theory of language Ieaming.

121

 

APPENDICES

122

 

APPENDIX A

SUR VEY QUESTIONS

. Choose a name different from your own.

. How long have you been studying at this university?

. Do you have a language major or minor?

. How long have you been studying L2?

. Have you been out of the country before this most recent study abroad? If yes
where?

. In what type of study abroad program did you enroll?

123

 

APPENDIX B

INTER VIEW PROTOCOL

To facilitate my note-taking, I would like to audio tape our conversations today. Please
sign the release form. For your information, only researchers on the project will be privy
to the tapes, which will be eventually destroyed after they are transcribed. In addition,
you must sign a form devised to meet our human subject requirements. Essentially, this
document states that: (1) all information will be held confidential, (2) your participation
is voluntary and you may stop at any time if you feel uncomfortable, and (3 ) we do not
intend to inﬂict any harm. T hank you for your agreeing to participate.

I have planned this interview to last no longer than one hour. During this time, I have
several questions that I would like to cover.

Introduction

My research project focuses on understanding how Study Abroad experiences inﬂuence
students’ identity as L2 learners, including what language learning experiences, if any;
students participate in upon their return from study abroad. You have been identiﬁed as
someone who has a great deal to share about Study Abroad experiences. My study will
not assess your Study Abroad experience or how you may have continued your language
learning upon return. Rather, I am trying to learn more about you as a L2 learner and
your Study Abroad experiences to help improve student language learning on campus.

1. Interviewee Background
a. I will provide the following questions in a short written survey format at
the beginning of the interview
02° Choose a name you would like me to use during this study in
order to report your answers (different from yours); if you cannot
think of a name, I will make up a name to use when putting
together my study.
0.0 How long have you been studying at this university?
02° Are you Spanish, German, French... Major or Minor?
0.0 How long have you been studying L2?
03° Have you been out of the country before this most recent study
abroad? If yes where.
0.0 In what type of study abroad program did you enroll?
2. Study Abroad
a. Why did you decide to go to Germany, France etc. . .?
3. L2 Identity
a. How do you describe yourself as a L2 learner?
03° Probe: Imagine yourself in a classroom, how do you see
yourself? What do you do?
b. How does the type of student you are now differ (if at all) from the one
you were before going abroad?

124

 

0

v Probe: Do you do anything different?
4. Motivation, Possible-selves and Study Abroad
a. Tell me what it was like speaking the language during your abroad stay?
02° Probe: How did you practice the language while you were
abroad?
b. Now, tell me what it has been like being in back in your home country in
terms of speaking the language.
0:0 Probe: How do you feel about not being able to communicate in
............ (Spanish, French, German, etc.)?
c. Now that you are back, what do you want to accomplish as a L2 learner?
02° Probe: What are you L2 goals, if any? What are you going to do
to try and achieve those goals?
(1. How do you describe yourself in 5 or ten years from now in regards to
your ability to listen, speak, read and write in ........... (Spanish, French,
German, etc.)?
5. Post interview comments or observation

 

125

 

APPENDIX C

FOCUS GROUP PROTOCOL
Students will be asked to arrive 10 minutes early; Room must be set up at least 30 minutes
before; rapport will be established with students as they arrive; the facilitator will welcome
each participant.
Stage One:

0 Welcome everyone and express appreciation
0 Introduction of my assistant and myself.
0 Purpose of today’s focus group

 

Stage Two

0 Conﬁdentiality: highlight deﬁnition of conﬁdentiality

0 Recording: highlight the presence of audio/video equipment, purpose of items in
qualitative design (accuracy).

This session is being taped in order to gain the fullest information from the comments you

make. The tapes will be transcribed and listened to or read only in strict conﬁdentiality.

Your comments will be transcribed only as information will be used only as those made

by participant 1, participant 2, etc. Again, this information will be used only by those

involved in this evaluation.

Stage Three

0 Ice breaker comment in order to facilitate the dialogue among participants. A
comment about the weather or study abroad in general.
0 Start the dialogue with the following questions:
0 How has it been for you coming back to an environment where
English is the main language?

0 Tell me about things you have done to maintain or improve your
language skills since you returned from study abroad, if anything.
[Probez How oﬁen have you engaged in those activities?] If you
have not done anything, that’s ok but I’m curious as to why not.

0 What challenges have you faced that keep you from developing or
maintaining your language skills?

 

126

0 Tell me about the activities you are able to do in order to maintain or
develop your language skills further.

0 How has your performance in language classes been affected by your
SA experience? [Did you feel that you were able to perform better in
the language classes due to your SA experience? Why?]

0 How do you think language classes might be improved to help
students maintain or improve their language skills [or L2 possible
selves]

o How do you see yourself in ﬁve years from now in terms of your
language ability?

Any closing comments?

Thank you for participating.

127

 

 

APPENDIX D

PART ICIPAN T CONSENT FORM FOR STUDY
STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS: OPPORTUNITIES FOR FURTHER ENGAGEMENT

PARTICIPANT CONSENT FORM FOR STUDY

This research study is designed to explore the role of the L2 self in the ﬁeld of
language Ieaming motivation. It is being conducted as part of my graduate program
dissertation requirement. Despite the well known linguistic advantages after the abroad
sojourn, little is known about how students approach language Ieaming after the
experience. Your participation in this research study will help us to better understand
student’s engagement after they come back from studying abroad.

The research study involves a 30-60 minute interview and completion of an
information form. The interview will be audio taped so that I can accurately reﬂect on
what is discussed. You may ask for the tape recorder to be turned off at any time. The
tapes will remain in my ofﬁce in a locked ﬁle and I who will transcribe and analyze them
will only review them. Regulations require that research data and the information form be
kept for at least three years, after which time they will then be destroyed. It is unlikely,
but you may feel uncomfortable answering some of the questions. You do not have to
answer any questions that you do not wish to and you can withdraw from the study at any
time without penalty. Participation is conﬁdential. Study information will be kept in a
secure location at the University of Grand Valley State. The results of the study may be
published or presented at professional meetings, but your identity will not be revealed.
Participation is anonymous, which means that no one will know what your answers are.
Your conﬁdentiality will be protected to the maximum extent allowable by law. You will
be asked to choose a pseudonym that will identify your answers throughout the study.

The second meeting is a focus group meeting. This will take place about two
months after the ﬁrst interview at a classroom at Allendale Campus. Others in the group
will hear what you say, and it is possible that they could tell someone else. Because we
will be talking in a group, we cannot promise that what you say will remain completely
private, but we will ask that you and all other group members respect the privacy of
everyone in the group. This group meeting will be videotaped and I will be the only one
allowed to review this taped.

Taking part in the study is your decision. You do not have to be in this study if
you do not want to. You may also quit being in the study at any time or decide not to
answer any question you are not comfortable answering. Participation, non-participation
or withdrawal will not affect your grades in any way. I will be the only one allowed to
hear and see the tapes and you will choose a different name for the research. All tapes
and written materials will then include this pseudonym for identiﬁcation purposes.
Beneﬁts, which might be gained by participating in the research study, include a forum
for reﬂecting on your experiences while abroad with an interested interviewer and
insights into yourself and your experience as a result of the experience.

Please indicate on the information form if you would like me to provide you with a

128

 

copy of the ﬁndings of the research study, a bibliography of resources for further reading
on the topic or both.

If you have study related questions or problems, you may contact me at 616 331
8503 or at buehnem@gtsu.edu or my advisor Dr. Marilyn Amey at 517-432-1056 or at
amev@msu.edu. If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant or
are dissatisﬁed at any time with any aspect of this study, you may contact-anonymously,
if you wish— Peter Vasilenko, Ph.D., Director of the Human Subject Protection Programs
at Michigan State University by phone: (517) 355-2180, fax: (517) 432-4503, email
address: irb@ores,mus.edu, or postal mail 202 Olds Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824. You
may also contact my advisor Dr. Marilyn Amey,
Statement of Consent:
I have read the above information. I have asked any questions I had regarding the
experimental procedure and they have been answered to my satisfaction. I consent to
participate in this study.

 

 

Name of Participant Date:
(please print)
Signature of Participant
Age: (Note: You must be 18 years of age or older to participate in

 

this study. Let the experimenter know if you are under 18 years old.)

Audio/Videotape Addendum to Consent form

You have already agreed to participate in a research study entitled: Study Abroad
Programs: Opportunities for Further Engagement conducted by Maria Villalobos-
Buehner. I am asking for your permission to allow me to audio and videotape you as part
of this research study. If you decide not to be recorded, you will not be able to participate
in the study.

The recording(s) will be used for analysis by the main researcher. The recording(s) will
be stored in a locked ﬁle cabinet and labeled with subjects’ chosen pseudonym and will
be destroyed upon completion of the study procedures.

Your signature on this form grants the investigator named above permission to record
you as described above during participation in the above-referenced study. The
investigator will not use the recording(s) for any other reason than that/those stated in the

129

 

L___. __

 

consent form without your written permission.

Signature of Participant

 

 

This research proposal
08-164-H has been ‘3
approved by the Human

Research Review

 

 

._L__ ____ _

 

 

130

 

APPENDIX E

LETTER OF INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN THE STUDY TO POTENTIAL
STUDENTS.

Study Title: Study Abroad Programs: Opportunities for Further Engagement.
Dear Student,

My name is Maria Villalobos-Buehner. I am a professor in the Modern Languages and
Literatures Department at Grand Valley State University as well as a doctoral student from
Michigan State University. I am conducting a research study as part of my graduate program on
the inﬂuences of study abroad programs in language Ieaming and I would like to invite you to
participate.

If you decide to participate, you will be asked to meet with me for an interview about your
experiences abroad and your goals after returning back from the sojourn as well as to participate
in a group discussion about activities you engaged in during the ﬁrst two months after coming
back to Grand Valley State. The meeting for the ﬁrst interview will take place at my ofﬁce or a
mutually agreed upon time and place, and should last about 40 — 50 minutes. The interview will
be audio taped so that I can accurately reﬂect on what is discussed. You may ask for the tape
recorder to be turned off at any time. I who will transcribe and analyze them will only review the
tapes. They will then be destroyed.

It is unlikely, but you may feel uncomfortable answering some of the questions. You do not
have to answer any questions that you do not wish to. Participation is conﬁdential. Study
information will be kept in a secure location at the University of Grand Valley State. The results
of the study may be published or presented at professional meetings, but your identity will not be
revealed. Participation is anonymous, which means that no one will know what your answers are.
So, please do not write your name or other identifying information on any of the study materials.

The second meeting is a focus group meeting. This will take place about two months aﬁer
the ﬁrst interview at a classroom at Allendale Campus. Others in the group will hear what you
say, and it is possible that they could tell someone else. Because we will be talking in a group, we
cannot promise that what you say will remain completely private, but we will ask that you and all
other group members respect the privacy of everyone in the group. As with the interviews, this
group meeting will be videotaped and I will be the only one allowed to review this taped.

Taking part in the study is your decision. You do not have to be in this study if you do not
want to. You may also quit being in the study at any time or decide not to answer any question
you are not comfortable answering. Participation, non-participation or withdrawal will not affect
your grades in any way. Beneﬁts, which might be gained by participating in the research study,
include a forum for reﬂecting on your experiences while abroad with an interested interviewer
and insights into yourself and your experience as a result of the experience.

I will be happy to answer any questions you have about the study. You may contact me at
616 331 8503 or at buehnem@gvsu.edu if you have study related questions or problems. If you
have any questions about your rights as a research participant, you may contact the Ofﬁce of
Research Compliance at Grand Valley State University at 803-777-7095.

Thank you for your consideration. If you would like to participate, please contact me at the
number listed below.

With kind regards,

Maria Villalobos-Buehner
Spanish Professor
616-3318503

131

2!

J 1

“-

 

APPENDIX F

E-lI/LAIL SENT T O FACULTY DIRECTORS OF STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS

Dear colleagues,

I am in the process of ﬁnishing my degree and I am in the dissertation stage at this
moment. The focus of my research is students’ motivation from a L2 self perspective and
its inﬂuence in the development of learning strategies. In order to answer my questions, I
need students who were abroad during the winter, spring or summer semester, are coming
back to continue their degree and are enrolled in a language class. I would like to ask
you if you could help me identify students who would be interested in participating. If
you know of someone, I have attached an invitation letter to be distributed to these
students with more information about the study and with my information so they can
contact me in case they decide to participate.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate any help you could give me.

Maria Villalobos-Buehner

132

 

 

APPENDIX G

E—MAIL SENT T 0 STUDENTS VIA SERVER LISTS
From: Maria F Villalobos-Buehner <buehnem@gvsu.edu>

To: "SPANISHSTUDENTS":
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:08:48 -0400 (EDT)

Subject: A request to participate in a study: SPANISHSTUDENTS

Dear students,

I need your help. I would like to invite those of you who are or will be studying abroad
this Winter, Spring or Summer 08 semesters and are planning to continue with your
language classes aﬁer this trip to participate in a study that will help me to understand
how study abroad programs might inﬂuence your motivation for language Ieaming.

I have attached a letter of invitation in which I explain in more detail what the study is all
about.

This is an opportunity to share great memories with a friendly ear.:)

133

 

 

 

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134

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