perspective on motivation.“Motivation is less a trait thanfluid play, an ever-
changing one that emerges from the processes of interaction of many agents,
internal and external, in the ever-changing complex world of the learner”
(Ellis and Larsen-Freeman 2006: 563). This complex interaction is beautifully
phrased by Lewiset al.:
In conceptualizing the relationship between emotion and cognition nei-
ther should be described as causing the other; rather, each continually
and progressively chases the other, weaving separate threads of behavior
into a single composition, a fugue.
(1984: 285–6)This close link between emotion and cognition is also foregrounded in
Verspoor’s (2014) reference to Edelman’s work on the conceptualization of
action/perception/evaluation as the driving force in development. Iterative
steps are evaluated and that evaluation sparks the iterative process, it provides
the feedback that gives direction.
The changing views on development and motivation also lead to a refor-
mulation of research questions. MacIntyre (2014) suggests how traditional
questions with respect to motivation, willingness to communicate and lan-
guage anxiety can be rephrased in CDST terms. Some of the changes he
proposes are listed in Table 8.1.
He points out that“rephrasing these questions allows us to observe the
intra-individual variation of numerous processes that co-occur on a time-
scale of seconds and minutes”(MacIntyre 2014, conference handout). For
the standard research questions correlational studies based on surveys or
introspective methods are used and these provide“clear”outcomes, such as
correlations between 0.30 and 0.60 between anxiety and course grades. But
the CDST research questions dig deeper and call for data onfiner timescales.
What exactly the relationship between physical arousal measures and mental
states is, is less clear, but the data make it clear in a fairly direct way that
cognition is embodied: changes in mental states correlate significantly with
reported states of stress or positive feelings.
The new questions that arise from a CDST perspective call for other
methods of research that allow us to look at variation at different timescales.
Table 8.1Standard versus CDST research questions
Standard research question CDST research question
Does anxiety correlate with course
grades?
What happens when anxiety rises
during a test?
Are extraverts more willing to
communicate?
At the moment of choice, what are
extraverts thinking?
Does motivation predict proficiency? What happens to word choice as
avoidance motivation rises?
100 Trends III