The Process Model

Dörnyei and Ottos’s Process Model of second language acquisition motivation has two parts to it: 1. the Action Sequence (behavioral processes that go into play when initial wishes are transferred into goals, then into specific intentions, action upon those intentions, then (through the actions) accomplishments, and last but not least, evaluation of the process. 2. Motivational Influences (all motivational forces that fuel the Action Sequence.) (Dörnyei and Otto 1998, p.47)

The Action Sequence

Dörnyei and Otto (1998) describe the three main phases of the Action Sequence as the Preactional Phase, the Actional Phase, and the Postactional Phase.

Preactional Phase

The Preactional Phase starts off with the learner just thinking about actions through wishes and hopes. These thoughts become more concrete once the learner sets a goal – a basic idea of what he or she would like to have happen. The goal becomes an intention once the learner assigns some commitment to reaching that goal. Once the learner has a solid intention, as well as an action plan with organized subtasks, he moves on to the next phase in Dörnyei and Otto’s Action Sequence: the Actional Phase.

Actions being driven by wishes and hopes also play a role in second language motivation in Dörnyei’s later work. However, the focus is not on the Pre Actional Phase, but is based on the psychology of self. He describes a person’s ideas of future selves –what he/she might become, what he/she wants to become, and what he/she is afraid of becoming – as integral “future self guides” (Dörnyei and Ushioda 2009) that help the person move forward.

Actional Phase

According to Dörnyei and Otto, The Actional Phase is the phase where the learner first starts actually working towards realizing the goal by going through three processes. The first of those is to start carrying through on those initial subtasks organized at the end of the Preactional Phase. Another ongoing process is called appraisal, where the learner has to deal with environmental stimuli such as the teacher, the class, the subject, the material, and learning. The attitudes formed concerning one type of stimuli can easily spill over into other types of stimuli. For example, a positive attitude about the teacher of a foreign language class can spill over into a positive attitude towards the language itself.

The third part of the Actional Phase is what Dörnyei and Otto call action control. Think of an American football scenario: An offensive lineman is on action control duty as he tackles other intentions and clears the way for the intention he works for to be acted upon. Action control keeps us focused on the task at hand and redirects us when distractions pop up. Dörnyei and Otto say that action control is so important because students need to rely on this to keep working when the going gets tough.

The going gets tough when class work and homework come into play. Students, according to studies conducted by Dörnyei and Otto (1998), “…students tend to find most academic classroom activities unenjoyable and uninteresting” (p.50-51) All of these factors serve as distractions that the action control offensive lineman needs to fend off, or else they will derail the intentions the offensive lineman is trying to protect. Part of my research was to find out what motivates students in class so this derailing can be avoided as much as possible. Class work, which Dörnyei describes as having the possibility to be unenjoyable for students, includes reading. Although there is research on student motivation to read in the second language (including Mori 2002, Takase 2007, other contributors to the international journal Reading in a Foreign Language), there needs to be more research on the incorporation of student selected pleasure reading in the classroom and the effect it has on motivation. Krashen believes that free voluntary reading is an important part of second language

acquisition, however, what is the relationship between free voluntary reading and motivation? Does student selected reading increase motivation because it gives the student a sense of autonomy? Or , because students often do not know what is

appropriate for their level of language learning, is it more motivational for the teacher to limit choices as she may have more of a sense of what the student can comprehend and therefore get greater satisfaction from? This is an important consideration for future research as Dörnyei stresses the importance of class work, which includes reading, as a distraction to action control.

Appraisal and action control come together, and over time will lead to an outcome. This outcome may be right on target, and the learner has fulfilled the earliest ideas of the intention. However, it can also turn out differently than the learner had envisioned – the outcome may be modified in some way, or it may have even been given up upon, either for the time being or indefinitely. After an outcome has been attained, the learner enters the Postactional Phase.

Postactional Phase

Dörnyei and Otto (1998) describe the postactional phase as taking place after the goal has been attained or given up on, or when working towards a goal is interrupted. Here, processes that led to achievement (or termination) are evaluated. This type of

the Actional Phase. During the Postactional Phase, you are no longer actively working towards the goal and can look at it from a different perspective. In other words, you are no longer in the heat of the moment and can see the whole process from beginning to end on a continuum.