Literature Review

Students in less commonly taught languages often begin their studies in college. Many of these languages are considered to be “super hard” or category IV languages by the Foreign Service (US State Department, n.d.). These include Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Arabic. These languages require at least 2200 hours of classroom study for superior proficiency. For a typical five-credit language course, a student will experience 80 classroom hours. At this rate of learning students will require approximately 27.5 semesters or 13 years to attain mastery if they were restricted to one course per semester. Some programs though have only three-credit courses. Those students are looking at nearly 46 semesters or 23 years to attain high level proficiency. Obviously, the more exposure a student has to the language the faster they will acquire it, but what about those students in small programs with limited access to the language? Students at the beginning of their language journey in these category IV languages are often adults. How can we keep adult students motivated to continue their language studies in these difficult languages beyond the scope of our programs when the pressures of everyday life are more prevalent for their age? Continual visualization of themselves as proficient users of the language may be the key.

In my own college-level Japanese language teaching practice, I have only four course levels. Due to the specialty nature of the college, students are not able to take my classes until their sophomore year at the earliest, and then their academic plans are so restricted that they must choose between additional Japanese language courses and other electives needed to graduate. In a survey I conduct at the beginning of the first semester students are asked why they are studying Japanese. Most want to become manga translators or collaborate with Japanese artists. Both activities require extensive language study beyond the two years that I provide. Their initial motivation seems high and yet they are unaware of what is required to attain this level of proficiency. By the start of the third semester the class has dwindled from 20 to 5 because of graduation or the inability to fit another class in to their schedule.

Developing a motivational program serves two purposes. First, when students know what they want to achieve in their future careers which involves being language users, they may sign up for my courses even when they have a full schedule, thus I may have the required numbers to hold the class. Second, students who graduate with motivation to keep studying to reach high levels of proficiency where they can use their skills in their profession, need autonomous learning skills and an illustrated action plan they can commit to. While focusing on their immediate participation in my classroom is self-motivated, as a language teaching professional my true desire is to see my students proficient beyond my classroom in a future world I have influenced but will never know.

In this review I will introduce the theory of Possible Selves and how it can be applied to motivate a language user. Next we will examine the seven steps outlined by leading motivational psychologists that create the framework of the Possible Selves Program. Each step is required in this specific order to help the student develop their vision of who they want to become. Then I will examine how this program applies to the development of language vision.

Definition of Possible Selves

Many students, athletic or not, may have heard of the training technique world class athletes use to visualize their performance before a competition. The track athlete, for example, imagines their body in the competition. They feel their muscles working, hear the sounds around them, and in their mind’s eye they see themselves winning the race. The key to harnessing the power of vision, according to van der Helm, is to identify the future self, the ideal self and what drives one to make change in their lives (van der Helm, 2009). When we can clearly visualize the future we desire, we can take conscious steps towards this ideal.

One wholistic approach to motivational development is the concept of Possible Selves. A person has many possible selves in their future, but which one will they attempt to make a reality? Psychologists, Hazel R Markus and Paula Nurius introduced the concept of Possible Selves in the mid-1980s. “Possible selves represent individuals’ ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming, and thus provide a conceptual link between cognition and motivation,” (Markus & Nurius, 1986, p. 954). Knowing who we want to be is motivating but the difficulty cam in knowing how to implement in an educational setting for students of all ages. To encourage this awareness, students explore their visions in both first person (through our own eyes) and third person (through an observer’s eyes) activities. Psychological sciences are showing that “.. guided imagery from the first-person perspective may be effective if our primary purpose is to enhance students’ positive feelings about themselves,” while the third-person perspective integrates the experiences into one’s self-concept (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014, p. 19). In this way we must address both types of reflection in our motivational activities.

Steps of the Possible Selves Program

The Possible Selves Program was designed to assist students through several stages of developing motivation towards a future goal. (Hock, 2003). This multistep process helps individuals identify the components of their possible selves by discovering, thinking, sketching, reflecting, growing, and performing. (Gibbs & Reed, 2018). An additional step, questioning, is often added as a precursor to prime students for the Possible Selves process (Nickolas, 2014). These can be broken down into lessons on any subject for students of all ages. The Possible Selves Program outlined below help students of all ages to develop a concept of their possible future self and identify an action plan that may make that vision a reality. It can be applied to young students as well as adults and focus on different aspects of their lives where they want to see achievement. It is important to keep in mind that these possible selves are fluid and may change over time. As such, I will be addressing how the Possible Selves Program can benefit foreign language students and the coursework those instructors should aim for.

The following is an outline of each of the steps which can be applied to any topic or student demographic. This is the framework within the foreign language teacher will guide their students to achievement beyond the classroom and graduation.

Step 1 Questioning: what are my goals and what do I think I want to do with my life?

Students are introduced to the concept of Possible Selves and dream catchers (Nickolas, 2014). A dream catcher is a cultural artifact that most students will be familiar with. The dream catcher is a simple talisman found in many Native American cultures and practices that is hung above a bed to encourage good dreams and prevent bad ones according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary. Other cultural artifacts related to dreams and future visions can be used as well. The goal is to encourage students to begin thinking about their dreams of the future.

Step 2 Discovering Strength and Interests: what am I good at and what am I interested in?

Students explore what they are good at and what they are interested in. Instructors conduct activities designed to help students think about what they are good at and help them feel positive about themselves. “By finding an area about which the student feels positive, the “pump is primed,” and the student becomes more willing to share information related to areas about which he or she may not feel so positive” (Hock M. F.-H., 2017). By itemizing their past successes and positive experiences students may be able to recognize skills that will lead to future success (Gibbs & Reed, 2018). After writing a list of strengths and interests, students create a collage to visually represent these concepts. For successful motivation we must visualize our hopes, dreams, and goals in such a way that all of our senses are involved. (Markus & Nurius, 1986). Some students may know the saying seeing is believing, thus they are now able to see what they are capable of and interested in.

Step 3 Thinking about Hopes, Expectations and Fears: who am I?

Students begin to ask themselves “Who am I?” At this stage students begin to think about their hopes and expectations in several areas of their lives. (Nickolas, 2014). For example, as a foreign language user, a worker, and a person. These three areas of the student’s life will be honed more sharply in the subsequent steps. In addition, students explore and identify fear or negative influences. The fears will be brought up several more times in the course as a way to keep the students moving forward and beyond this possibility. It may seem counter-intuitive to identify what we are afraid of. Many of us can recall being encouraged to look away from what scares us to focus only on the positive, however, it is the striking difference between your desired self and that which you fear that spurs motivation (Markus & Ruvolo, 1989, p. 223). This is carried out through an open-ended questionnaire or interview with the teacher that identifies words and phrases related to their hopes, expectations, and fears. In essence it is “an outline of the current self and possibilities for the future is developed within each area” (Hock M. F.-H., 2017). Students should be allotted enough time to complete this written activity so they can carefully consider their identities (Gibbs & Reed, 2018). In this way the student is beginning to define who they currently are.

Step 4 Sketching Me and My Possible Selves: what am I like and what are my possible selves?

Students engage in this step to discover “What am I like and what are my possible selves?” (Hock M. F.-H., 2017). Having identified hopes, expectations and fears, student analyze their results from the questionnaire. (Nickolas). This step also can help instructors gather qualitative research data for a deeper insight into the general make up of their students which can benefit future courses. (Oyserman, 2018). Next, the students draw a “Possible Selves Tree.” Each part of the tree is labeled with the exact words the student previously identified in step 3. The roots are words the student has used to describe themselves (Gibbs & Reed, 2018). The limbs represent the student in the three areas (foreign language user, worker, person); the branches represent hoped-for and expected possible selves in those areas; Fears are represented as things that can damage the tree such as lightning, termites, poison in the soil represent the student’s feared possible selves. (Hock M. F.-H., 2017) (Gibbs & Reed, 2018). After creating and labeling their tree, students reflect on ways they can nourish and protect their tree. Students may notice parts of their tree are out of balance when compared to other sections. This is a good visual for the student to see what they may need to work on.

Step 5 Reflecting on Goals: what can I be?

At this step students are asking “What can I be?” Students evaluate their trees by reflecting on what they drew and labeled. “It provides an opportunity for the student to evaluate the condition of his or her tree and set goals for the future,” (Hock M. F.-H., 2017). Students will be able to notice what was most important to who they are and define specific goals in each of the areas of their lives as identified in Step 3. (Gibbs & Reed, 2018) To accomplish this, they can work together in small groups to discuss their trees and develop goals.

Step 6 Growing your Action Plan: how do I get there?

This step is designed to answer, “How do I get there?” In this step students develop their action plan to make their goals reachable. “The Action Plan will list a specific hope, a short-term goal underpinning the hope, the specific tasks that must be completed to reach the goal, and a timeline for completing all of the tasks. The action plan provides “pathway” to support the attainment of long-term goals and hopes for the future” (Hock M. F.-H., 2017). To help students notice areas that need nurturing to reach their expectations and beyond instructors may need to model phrases such as “When I grow up, I want to be a judge. First, I need to become a lawyer… So, I have to study hard now” (Nickolas, 2014). Their action plans should specifically relate to being a foreign language user, a worker, and a person. (Gibbs & Reed, 2018).

Step 7 Performing: how am I doing?

This step answers “How am I doing?” With action plans in hand, students roleplay themselves as 10 years in the future giving advice and encouragement to their younger, current, selves. Students lean into how this older self looks, feels, and presents themselves. At this final stage students can create another collage, this time about their future as actualized based on their hopes, expectations, and goals. (Nickolas, 2014). Taken together these seven steps have led students through a powerful exploration of what they can become. “Possible selves are the cognitive components of hopes, fears, goals, and threats, and they give the specific self-relevant form, meaning, organization, and direction to these dynamics,” (Markus & Nurius, 1986). If students will be with the course for longer, they should reflect on their performance often and adjust their timelines and plans as needed. (Gibbs & Reed, 2018).

Application to Language Vision

The importance of developing a wholistic view is especially true for Language Vision – to see yourself as a foreign language user, thus motivation should take a “whole-person perspective, which makes psychological theories of human identity and the self as likely candidates for this purpose,” (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014, p. 11). The language learner is crafting not only an additional way of expressing themselves but also developing their vision to connect with new ways of thinking and observing everyday life. From the first steps, students will be creating autobiographical information. This information is valuable to the instructor as it provides a deeper understanding of why the students are studying this language. While the students may be gathering the information in charts or lists, other innovative ways can pull the information together to help the student bring their goals into focus. For example, blogs, collages, reflective journals, and ethnographical writing can be used (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014, p. 44).

Beyond the simple collage of beautiful magazine images, students should be encouraged to experience the language at a deeper level because “we need to taste the future in order to desire it,” (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014, p. 46). Vision boards of one’s ideal L2 self provides a way for the student to create images of their future selves as proficient users of the language. Other ways of “tasting” the language include interacting with native speakers and other experience-based activities. The involvement in the experience is more meaningful than simply observing. Project based learning and task-based language teaching simulate intercultural exchanges and can be used to stimulate student visions of themselves. Guided imagery also allows students to visualize their future selves by seeing their own visions in their mind’s eye. As with traditional guided imagery the instructor leads the students through a series of scenarios with their eyes closed. (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014, p. 51). Finally, students need to be writing, whether in their L1 or L2. Autobiographical stories of their future as proficient users of the language as well as keeping a reflective journal will help to internalize their experiences.

Transportation – vision into action

Imagery training is essential to the development of vision and transporting the student to new levels of proficiency. The transportation experience is “when people become so immersed in a story that they temporarily leave their own realities behind,” (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014, p. 74). Finding ways to captivate our students and encourages this transportation is a positive way to encourage their learning and future commitment to continued learning. The last two steps, Growing & Performing are designed to help the student move into their future self – to be transported into what they may be like in the future as they are mentally experiencing the action steps and roleplaying who they may be 10 years into the future.

The final two steps of the Possible Selves Program involves honing and illustrating action plans and performance guides. These action plans may be short term or cover several years beyond the scope of the language program. Students need a roadmap to help them follow through with the vision they have created for themselves (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014, p. 102). Creating a roadmap for implementation helps students to know when the next part of their action plan is to begin, thus it continues to pull them down the path they have envisioned for themselves. In the coursework that I designed, students illustrate their action plans and include an image of themselves at each stage as well. In the last step, my students create a vision board called an ikigai and image they are communicating from the future to their younger self by sharing all the wonderful things that have happened and are happing to them. These steps transport the student from here where they are still learning to there where they are masters of their craft.

Other Areas of Application and Study

The purpose of this literature review is not to be totally encompassing, but to highlight how the seven steps can be developed for individualized programs by teachers for students of all ages and language interests. The Possible Selves Program as a foreign language motivational program has great potential in the field of Inter Cultural Communication. ICC benchmarks can easily and clearly be added to the course outline and measured with various assessments. Multi-literacy is also supported. When used for language study, each step can include a cultural examination of the way a language expresses itself through the written word, music, video, and even art. There are few if any limitations that can be used for developing the language portion. This program is also not just for college students but can be used for young children beginning their studies, although for them 10 years into the future is looking at college or entering the workforce. Much remains to be discussed regarding how the Possible Selves Program can be used with language study motivation.

Conclusion

Identifying what you want to do in the future is more than listing your language goals. Many students begin their course work with an idea of “what they want to be when they grow up,” but often that idea has not been fleshed out. The truth is students have many possible future selves before them. Determining which want they want to pursue and taking the measures to attain that goal often involve some level of planning. Our students do not need to be restricted by their present state. “What do you want to be doing ten years from now” might include “being a proficient user of Japanese” if we can give them the tools to make that happen.

Possible Selves Theory suggests that to attain what you have set your sights on is to use as many senses as possible to explore your past actions and visualize your future self, while at the same time identifying the results you fear the most as a way to motivate you in the opposite direction. With that vision in mind, an action plan can be created. In less commonly taught languages that often require more time to learn than other more accessible languages, it is beneficial for the learner to see themselves as a proficient user of the language. Motivated foreign language students will be able to implement this plan to develop greater proficiency in the language.

As language teachers we have our students today, in the skills they have today. Yet we must always be training and preparing them for the time when they do not have us guiding each step. We do not control who they are or what they want to achieve, but we can help them see it and aim for it. With such influence, we as language teachers are in a unique position to influence the linguistic still and potential of our future society. While Possible Selves may be able to encourage students to remain in language programs longer, the ultimate goal is to develop the language user well beyond the scope of a college program where their multilingualism can influence the future.

References

Dörnyei, Z., & Kubanyiova, M. (2014). Motivating Learners, Motivating Teachers; Building vision in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dream catcher. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2021, from Merriam Webster Dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dream%20catcher

Foundation, J. (2021, November 29). JAPAN FOUNDATION SURVEY ON JAPANESE LANGUAGE EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS 2018. Retrieved from Japan Foundation: https://www.jflalc.org/jle-jfsurvey-2018

Gibbs, A., & Reed, D. K. (2018, February 20). Using Possible Selves to Facilitate Student Literacy Achievement. Retrieved from Iowa Reading Research Center: https://iowareadingresearch.org/blog/possible-selves-literacy-achievement

Hock, M. F. (2003). Possible selves: Nurturing student motivation. Edge Enterprises.

Hock, M. F.-H. (2017). (2017). The effects of a comprehensive reading program on reading outcomes for middle school students with disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 50, 195-212.

Markus, H., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves. American Psychologist, 41(9), 954–969.

Markus, H., & Ruvolo, A. (1989). Possible selves: Personalized representations of goals. In L. A. (Ed.), Goal concepts in personality and social psychology (pp. 211-241). Hillsdale,, NJ: Erlbaum.

Nickolas, D. (2014, September 13). Possible Selves. Retrieved from Slide Share: https://www.slideserve.com/denton/possible-selves

Oyserman, D. (2018, July). Possible selves citations, measure, and coding instructions. Retrieved from Univeristy of Southern California: https://dornsife.usc.edu/daphna-oyserman/measures/

US State Department. (n.d.). Foreign Language Training. Retrieved November 2021, from Foreign Service Instute: https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/

van der Helm, R. (2009). The vision phenomenon: Towards a theoretical underpinning of visions of the future and the process of envisioning. Futures(41), 96-104.