What a Directed Motivational Current Is to Language Teachers

This article discusses a framework developed by Dörnyei, Henry and Muir (2016). Known as the Directed Motivational Currents (DMCs) framework, it takes a socio-dynamic viewpoint in which learner motivation and other characteristics of learners, the learning task and the specific learning context are considered to be dynamically intertwined. Given that the DMCs framework is relatively new, descriptions of it remain highly theoretical. This article aims to discuss it in an accessible way, particularly by pinpointing how it can be translated into teaching practice. This article appraises the DMCs framework both theoretically and empirically. [Author abstract]