Directed Motivational Currents and Language Education. Christine Muir

and unique motivational ‘high’ of DMCs). This is an important area of focus for future research, particularly in considering the implications of DMC theory with regards to L2 pedagogy (the focus of the subsequent chapter and Part 3 of this book). L2 DMCs are likely to be a small part of a far longer language learning journey, and the affective experience relating to the way a DMC ends is likely to have a material impact on subsequent – either positive or negative – L2 engagement.

Conclusion

      In this chapter, I have overviewed all key elements of the DMC framework: their goal/vision-orientedness, launch, structure, positive emotional loading and final dissipation. In doing so I have referred to an array of literature from a broad variety of disciplines, both within and external to the field of SLA, all of which contribute a piece to the complex jigsaw depicting the functioning of this unique motivational experience. Although some areas of discussion are necessarily brief in the wider context of this book (see Dörnyei et al., 2016, for a fuller discussion of all these issues), I have endeavoured to offer readers unfamiliar with DMCs a systematic grounding in key ideas (and for familiar readers, a succinct refresher). There is one aspect of DMCs, however, which I have not addressed in this chapter. It is to this question of the pedagogical relevance of the DMC framework that I now turn in Chapter 3.