抄録
Over the years, in Japan, we have witnessed a number of second language (L2) motivation studies embodying a variety of topics and methods that were undertaken in the hope of finding the ultimate answer to the question: "How does one motivate L2 learners?" Nevertheless, we have had little fruitful, let alone comprehensive, discussion of the practical aspects of motivation so far and thereby a number of questions raised by practitioners remains unanswered. This present paper therefore attempts to examine the bulk of those L2 motivation studies and also to explore a number of possible future directions for practitioner-rewarding motivation studies. My argument is that we need to take three perspectives (domain of inquiry, research methods, and research purpose) into account in determining whether or not a motivation study constitutes so-called "eigo gakushuu iyoku kenkyuu" (practitioner-rewarding motivation research), that, I believe, can be characterized by the three elements of classroom context, learning behavior, and attitudes toward learning. To this end, in the first part of the paper, I draw on the terminologies relating to L2 motivation used in the field of SLA, and explicate the mechanism of L2 motivation (domain of inquiry). Then, I summarize some types of L2 motivation research (research methods & research purpose). Following that, I examine some reflective voices of the practitioners who have previously done L2 motivation research. Finally, I recapitulate some criteria in determining "eigo gakushu iyoku kenkyuu."
