Language Teacher and Learner Motivation Research: Possible Selves Th eory

Abstract

Th is paper presents a possible direction in research on teacher
and learner motivation in language teaching using the possible selves theory
(PST), which has successfully established itself as a theoretical framework in
psychology, pedagogy, and applied linguistics. Th e text begins by introducing
the background of PST and then proceeds to discuss its application in research on two key agents of the language learning process: the teachers and the
learners. First, it examines language teachers‘ professional identity. Secondly,
it introduces PST in applied linguistics, where it has fl ourished as a framework
to explore the motivation to learn a foreign/second language. By presenting
selected studies that have used PST, the text outlines the possibilities of its
validation in the fi eld of teaching Czech as a second language as well as in
research on the personality of foreign language teachers (whether Czech
or another language) in the Czech environment, which is still waiting for
a broader scale use of PST.