While we are accepting onsite payments, please preregister for this event! This will help us get everyone checked in on the day: http://kqjalt-dornyei.peatix.com
Most people will have come across a curious phenomenon whereby somebody suddenly embarks on a project, invests a great deal of time and energy in it for a period of time and, as a result, often achieves something quite remarkable. This paper discusses this phenomenon and introduces a novel psychological construct to describe it, ‘Directed Motivational Current’ (DMC). It refers to an intense motivational drive capable of both stimulating and supporting long-term behaviour, such as learning a foreign/second language. DMCs involve unique periods of heightened motivational involvement whereby individuals pursue a goal/vision which is considered personally significant, highly relevant to one’s desired identity and emotionally satisfying – the experience of a DMC carries with it the excitement of journeying down a ‘motivational highway’ towards new pastures. Although such surges occur in numerous guises within the social world, they are admittedly not very frequent and their duration is also limited. This being the case, do they have a more general significance for motivation theory? I will argue in this talk that they do, because DMCs represent an optimal form long-term motivation, one which occurs when all the necessary conditions and components of motivated action are present and act as a harmonious whole. It may be no exaggeration to regard almost any form of long-term motivation as a partial realization of a DMC and, accordingly, understanding how and why a DMC happens will allow us to identify the principal building blocks of sustained motivated behaviour.
Zoltán Dörnyei (PhD in Psycholinguistics, Budapest; PhD in Theology, Durham) is Professor of Psycholinguistics at the School of English, University of Nottingham. He has published extensively on various aspects of language learner characteristics and second language acquisition, and he is the author of over 25 books, including Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom (2001, Cambridge University Press), Research Methods in Applied Linguistics ( 2007, Oxford University Press), Motivating Learners, Motivating Teachers: Building Vision in the Language Classroom (2014, Cambridge University Press, with M. Kubanyiova), The Psychology of The Language Learner Revisited (2015, Routledge, with S. Ryan) and Motivational Currents in Language Learning: Frameworks for Focused Interventions (2016, Routledge, with A. Henry and C. Muir).

This event will be taking place at the University of Kitakyushu (Kitagata campus), an approximately 10-minute monorail ride from Kokura Station, one of the main train stations in the region. Full venue access details below.
Doors will be open from 3:30 pm, with the event starting at 4:00 pm. The presentation itself will be about 90 minutes, with additional time for questions and answers.
The entrance fee will be 1,000 yen for JALT members, and 2,000 yen for non-members. Please preregister! This will help us get everyone checked in on the day: http://kqjalt-dornyei.peatix.com/

This event is co-sponsored by the JALT Mind, Brain, and Education SIG, in association with PLL3.
Kitakyushu JALT thanks them for their generous support.
Access

The easiest way to get to Kitakyushu University is to take the monorail from Kokura Station: http://www.kitakyushu-monorail.co.jp/english/
The entrance to the Kitakyushu Monorail Station is conveniently located in the Kokura Station building. It's very easy to find. If arriving by shinkansen, when you exit the ticket gate, head to the left, up the flight of stairs, and the monorail station is directly across the concourse. If coming on a regular train, exit the ticket gates and you'll see the monorail station on the other side of the concourse, directly in front of you.
If not coming by train, head up to the second floor of the Kokura Station building to get to the monorail.
The stop for the university is Keibajo-mae station (競馬場前駅), station #8.
It's a 10-minute ride and costs 250 yen one-way (IC cards can be used to pay the fare).
The monorail departs ever 10 minutes, we recommend taking the 3:10 or 3:20 pm one to get to the venue and register in time for the 4pm start.
The presentation will be held in the in the A101 Lecture Hall, which is on the first (ground) floor of the honkan building. Signs will be posted to direct attendees to the lecture hall.
For the monorail returning to Kokura Station, one departs at 4 minutes past the hour and every 10 minutes after (6:04 pm; 6:14 pm; etc.)
The address of the University is 北九州市立大学北方キャンパス
〒802-8577　福岡県北九州市小倉南区北方四丁目２番１号 Access details on the university home page: http://www.kitakyu-u.ac.jp/access/

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