By tradition, L2 motivation research has a monolingual bias – the motivational systems of a learner's different languages conceptualized as separate entities rather than as cognitively interconnected. At a time when multilingualism has become a new world order (Douglas Fir Group, ) and where there is evidence of powerful identity experiences connected to speaking several languages (Pavlenko, ) this is unfortunate. In alignment with the multilingual and dynamic turns in SLA (de Bot, ; May, ), and adopting a complexity thought modeling approach (Larsen–Freeman & Cameron, ), this article explores multilingual learners’ L2 motivation. It is suggested that the motivational systems of a multilingual learner's different languages can be understood as constituting a higher‐level multilingual motivational self system that is part of an ecology of interconnected and interpenetrating systems. This system contains multilingual self guides, one of which is the ideal multilingual self. Drawing on construal‐level theory (Trope & Liberman, ), the manner and effects of mental representations of an ideal multilingual self are assessed. Finally, it is suggested that motivation deriving from a broader identity that encompasses but, in important ways, transcends a multilingual person's language‐specific identities has a central role to play in multilingual education.

In a series of articles Dörnyei and his colleagues (Dörnyei, Ibrahim, & Muir, 2015;Dörnyei, Muir, & Ibrahim, 2014;Muir & Dörnyei, 2013) describe the phenomenon of a period of intense and enduring motivation in pursuit of a highly desired personal goal or vision. These surges of motivational energy, which they call Directed Motivational Currents (DMCs), uniquely differ from other types of highly motivated behaviour or optimal forms of engagement that are to be found in the literature in the sense that individual learning activities form integrated parts of a coherent motivational superstructure. The current article offers the first systematic empirical investigation of this motivational phenomenon. Focusing on periods of unusually intense and enduring motivation experienced by migrant learners of Swedish as a second language, the purpose of this interview-based study is to consider whether core characteristics of DMCs can be identified in participants' descriptions of sustained motivated behaviour, thereby considering the validity of the DMC construct. Results reveal that motivated behaviour is characterised by features similar to those outlined by Dörnyei and colleagues, namely the presence of a salient facilitative structure, the generation of positive emotionality, and the direction of motivated behaviour toward long-term identity investment goals. This indicates that the DMC construct captures a unique form of motivation worthy of future investigation.

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