Reanchoring language other than English motivation in English-dominant ecologies: a case study of a relational multilingual self-guide

This longitudinal narrative case study examined the sustenance and reorganisation of motivation for a language other than English (LOTE) across shifting linguistic ecologies. Focusing on a Japanese university student learning German, it reconstructed his motivational trajectory through four contexts: study abroad in New Zealand, university study in Japan, a dual language study-abroad programme in Germany, where English functioned as the default lingua franca in his international programme, and reentry into Japan’s English-dominant environment. Drawing on narrative interview data and informed by ecological and complex dynamic systems perspectives, the study found that, although English remained the learner’s dominant, instrumentally valued language, German remained motivationally salient post-reentry despite sharply reduced use. Its motivational significance was affectively reanchored through relational meanings tied to friendships, memories, and self-recognition, with German persisting as personally meaningful rather than instrumentally useful. To interpret this trajectory, this study provisionally conceptualises the relational ideal multilingual self as a relationally configured manifestation of the ideal multilingual self: a self-guide configuration wherein a LOTE remains motivationally salient across contexts via relational anchoring and affective continuity, despite diminished opportunities for use and absent language-specific goals. The findings suggest a movement toward cross-linguistic self-efficacy, a generalised confidence in one’s capacity to learn languages.