DIRECTED MOTIVATIONAL CURRENTS THROUGH GROUP PROJECTS: A STUDY OF VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

“Directed Motivational Currents” is a unique motivational construct that describes periods of highly driven behaviour while working towards a well-defined and personally meaningful end goal (Dörnyei, Henry, & Muir, 2016). Such periods of motivation occur in a variety of circumstances and are aimed toward a variety of ends, but they are uniquely identifiable by the extremely positive emotionality demonstrated by individuals. Although research on DMCs in various contexts is on the rise, there have not been many well-established studies on DMCs in the Vietnamese setting. Study One takes a quantitative approach to research by addressing questions about the recognisability of DMCs among Vietnamese students, and by examining fundamental questions such as the number of people who report having experienced DMC-like motivation, what inspired them, and how long it lasted. In addition, it examines the respondents' demographic characteristics to determine whether there are any correlations between DMCs and their gender. There are a total of 855 Vietnamese students involved in the study, which use an adapted version of an online questionnaire created by Muir (2016). The results support the hypothesis that DMCs are a commonly recognised and experienced motivating phenomenon in society and demonstrate that there are no significant connections between DMCs and any demographic variables. In terms of language acquisition, the data support the claim that DMCs are present across a broad variety of language levels. Qualitative data from the survey also offers interesting insights to DMCs triggers and barriers, which is influence by Vietnamese culture and history. The second study examines the practical application of DMC theory to language learning and instruction. This classroom intervention project, undertaken in partnership with Hai Nguyen, sought to enable a group DMC experience for 25 university English language learners at the lower intermediate level. This study is based on the notion that group DMCs can be viewed as intensive group projects in a classroom setting. The study was organised according to the “Step by Step” framework (Dörnyei et al., 2016). Throughout the five-week period, data was collected from personal journal entries and Facebook conversations with both the students and the teacher. Findings indicate that the intervention was highly successful at creating a group DMC experience, and notably, students reported considerable positive gains throughout the course, both in terms of language acquisition and other essential skills. On the other hand, exam pressure, peer pressure family pressure and group conflicts cause fluctuations to the students’ DMCs.