Complex adaptive systems, language advising, and motivation: A longitudinal case study with a Brazilian student of English

In light of the 'complexity turn' in applied linguistics, language learning is understood as a complex system formed from other subsystems such as motivation and language advising. From this perspective, the language adviser acts as another agent in the language learners' learning system, potentially disturbing and energizing their learning trajectory. This article examines the motivational dynamics in the learning trajectory of a Brazilian university-level student of English as a foreign language in the context of language advising. A longitudinal qualitative case study was carried out to investigate his motivational dynamics over a period of two and a half years. This period encompassed his language learning with and without the support of a language adviser. Taking a systemic view of motivation, data were collected employing a range of research instruments, such as language learning narratives, open-ended questionnaires, field notes, and in-depth interviews derived from different agents, as the advisee, two of his professors, one of his classmates, and the adviser as the researcher. As such, they provide five perspectives on the same learning process at different periods of time. The findings show that language advising is the locus of regulation of language learning motivation that takes place in different learning contexts.