Classroom foreign language teachers work day in and day out to foster more effective learning environments with students. Part of this quest involves striving to gain a greater understanding of what motivates learners in the classroom. While different theoretical constructs abound, the essence of motivation is that it refers to the direction and magnitude of human behaviour, that is, why, how long, and how hard people try to do something (Dörnyei, 2001: 7). It is a want towards future action. My own interest in classroom motivation has emerged from a range of experiences teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in Japan over the past 17 years. In some settings, students have professed a wish to study 'authentic', communicative oral English for travel or business. Yet while they seem to have a clear-cut purpose to their studies and are active during our time together, individual students' drive to conduct additional study outside lessons has varied greatly. In other situations, students have had very little in the way of opportunities to use English in their everyday lives. Nevertheless, students (and teachers) have together enriched the class atmosphere, the class motivation, with their enthusiasm in using basic English to carry out tasks and interactive activities.

This book presents my own journey in working to conceptualise the complex and dynamic interactions that influence the evolution of the motivation of a language class group.