Over the past two decades there has been an interest among psychologists - self theorists in the active, dynamic nature of the self-system. First introduced by Markus and Nurius (1986), the concept of the possible self represents individuals’ ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become and what they are afraid of becoming. That is, possible selves are specific representations of one’s self in future states, involving thoughts, images and senses, and are in many ways the manifestations of one’s goals and aspiration. From a motivational point of view, two types of possible selves, the ideal self and they ought to self, seemed particularly relevant (Higgins, 1987). The former refers to the representation of the attributes that someone would ideally like to possess (i.e. representation of hopes, aspirations or wishes), whereas the latter refers to the attributes that one believes one ought to possess (i.e. a representation of someone’s sense of your duty, obligations or responsibilities) and which therefore may bear little resemblance to desires or wishes. The motivational aspect of these self-guides was explained by Higgins’s (1987, 1998) self-discrepancy theory, postulating that motivation involves the desire for people to reduce the discrepancy between their actual and ideal/ought selves.
This self research gripped Dörnyei’s attention in 2005. He immediately spotted a new challenging opportunity for motivational research. Moreover, he proposed a new approach to the understanding of L2 motivation, conceived within the ‘L2 Motivational Self System’, which attempts to integrate a number of influential L2 theories (e.g. by Gardner, 2001; Ushioda, 2001) with findings of self research in psychology (e.g. Higgins, 1987; Markus and Nurius,
1986). He suggests three main components of the L2 Motivational Self System:
x Ideal L2 Self, which is the L2-specific facet of one’s ‘ideal self’: If the person we would like to become speaks an L2, the ‘ideal L2 self’ is a powerful motivator to learn the L2.
x Ought-to L2 Self, which concerns the attributes that one believes one ought to possess to meet expectations and to avoid possible negative outcomes.
x L2 Learning Experience, which concerns situated motives related to the immediate learning environment and experience (e.g. the impact of the teacher, the curriculum, the peer group, the experience of success). Consequently, there exist six conditions for the motivating capacity of the ideal and ought-to selves, which are
true only if 1) the learner has a desired future self-image; 2) this self-image/ future self-image is elaborate and vivid;
3) the self-image/future self-image is perceived as plausible and is in harmony – or at least does not clash – with the expectations of the learner’s family, peers and other elements of the social environment; 4) the self-image/future self-image is regularly activated in his/ her working self-concept; 5) the self-image/future self-image is accompanied by relevant and effective procedural strategies that act as a roadmap towards the goal; 6) the self-image/future self- image also contains elaborate information about the negative consequences of not achieving the desired end-state.