Inspired by the unexpected results of a standardized questionnaire survey of Swiss university students' motivation and attitudes toward English, the paper discusses the influence of global and local contexts on language learners' motivation and identity. As a result of the unprecedented spread of English as a foreign language (Crystal, 2003;Graddol, 2006), and, more importantly, the underlying social and economic issues that it reflects, elements of the global context intermingle with local realities to create new learning experiences, unaccounted for by traditional research paradigms. Individuals find themselves at the convergence of multiple contexts that affect and are in turn affected by their language attitudes and identity as well as sense of self. The intricate relationships between contexts and individuals continue to gain emphasis in current approaches to language learning motivation (cf. , which position L2 learnin in a new light, questioning the power and relevance of different motivational categories and also these of a generalizable theoretical model. The quantitative study presented in this paper explores interrelationships among key elements of the L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2009) and a number of motivational factors on the one hand, contrasting them against the economic and social background of the Swiss context on the other. The findings of the project reveal that such repositioning of the participants in the multicultural, plurilingual environment of Geneva and its socioeconomic reality was indeed essential to the interpretation of the results since the extraordinary strength of external and societal factors in participants' motivational profile gained meaning only in the light of the particularities of the local context. Therefore, the paper showcases the potential of a broader perspective on L2 motivation and the importance of learner-context relationships.Virág Csillagh 432

Categorising language learning motives according to their sources or directions is an essential aspect of traditional L2 motivation theory, and the most influential of all such dimensions is the external-internal continuum. The chapter discusses dominant conceptualisations of the dichotomy from the perspective of modern learning contexts, which represent considerable challenges to traditional approaches to L2 motivation. Based on Dörnyei's model of motivation as a continuous, dynamic process of identity construction and reinforcement, the present study explores the question of how aspects of the self interact with elements of the social and economic environment. In order to investigate the impact of contextual influences on Swiss university students' attitudes to English, the study adopts an interdisciplinary perspective, complementing the analysis of L2 motivational phenomena with concepts and findings from the field of language economics. The results are indicative of the role that social and economic factors play in forming participants' attitudes and self-concept, and attest to the potential of applying interdisciplinary approaches to the study of contextual influences on language learning.

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