The effects of working possible selves on second language performance

Abstract

Working possible selves—currently activated images of an ideal or feared future self—have been argued to guide one’s motivation and actions. This study investigated how possible selves affect L2 learners’ motivational behaviors of persistence and effort as shown in essay revision and proofreading. One hundred and twelve ESL students were assigned to one of four conditions: successful future selves, unsuccessful future selves, successful past selves, or successful future of others. Participants were asked to imagine and freewrite about their assigned condition and to revise their essay until they were satisfied with the writing. Following this, participants proofread a reading text containing spelling errors. The time spent on revision was considered as an indicator of persistence, and the number of spelling error corrections was taken to represent effort. The analysis of group differences in performance revealed that the successful past selves group persisted longer in the revision task than the successful future selves group. No group differences were found in the proofreading task. The finding that the successful future selves group scored lowest of the four groups in the revision task contrasts sharply with results from previous research. Possible explanations are discussed in relation to the theory of possible selves and task characteristics.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Instructions for each condition

• 1. Successful future selves

Imagine yourself in the future. Everything has gone as well as it possibly could have. You have worked hard and have succeeded in achieving your goals.

Now, write one narrative essay about your successful future. You can think of those questions when writing: “What are you imagining? What do you see yourself doing? What kind of environment are you in? What types of people are around you?” Describe what you are imagining. In this imagined scene, how do you feel in your imagined scene? What do you do on a typical day?

• 2. Unsuccessful future selves

Imagine yourself in the future. Everything has gone as badly as it possibly could have. You have worked hard but have failed to achieve your goals.

Now, write one narrative essay about your unsuccessful future. You can think of those questions when writing: “What are you imagining? What do you see yourself doing? What kind of environment are you in? What types of people are around you?” Describe how you feel in your imagined scene. In this imagined scene, what do you do on a typical day?

• 3. Successful past selves

Think about your most memorable success in the past. You worked so hard to achieve your goals, and you had succeeded in achieving your goals.

Now, write one narrative essay about your successful past. You can think of those questions when writing: “What are you thinking? What did you do? do you see yourself doing? What kind of environment were you in? What types of people were around you?” Describe how you felt in your past successful story. In this imagined scene, what was your typical day after the success?

• 4. Successful future of others

Think about someone you have come to know very well at the university. Everything has gone as well as it possibly could have. He or she has worked hard and has succeeded in achieving his or her goals.

Now, write one narrative essay about your friend’s successful future. You can think of those questions when writing: “What are you imagining? What do you see him/her doing? What kind of environment is he/she in? What types of people are around him/her? How does he/she feel in your imagined scene?” Describe what you are imagining. In this imagined scene, what does he/she do on a typical day?

Appendix 2

Reading text for a proofreading task (with spelling errors identified)

• 1. The Eiffel Tower

What is the most famouus place in Paris? Most people give the same anwser—the Eiffel Tower. It was the idae of Gustave Eiffel. Some peple in Paris did not like the plans for the tower. But the world was diffrent now. More and more was posible, and Eiffel understood this.

He finshed the tower and showed it to the world in 1889. At the timee it was the tallest building in the world—324 meters. Eiffel understood one of the bigest problems for tall buildings—the wind. Srtong winds are not a problem for teh Eiffel Tower becuase they can go through it.

Visitors loved the tower from the start. In its fist year, tickets paid for the tower. The Eiffel Tower is the talest building in Paris today, but there are many taller biuldings around the world. This does not stop the mllions of visitors—amlost 6.5 million every year.

• 2. The Great Wall of China

Which is the most famuos wall in the world? For many pople, there is only one answer to this qeustion—the Great Wall of China. Its name in Chinese maens “long wall.” This is a good name becuase at one time the wall was about 6400 km loong.

The Chinese first built a long wall about 2500 yeears ago. It protected the counrty in the north. They built a secodn wall—today’s Great Wall of China—about five hunrded years ago. It was more than a wall; they put towers inn high places on it. At one time more than one million men worked on the waall and protected their country.

Today many pople visit the Great Wall every year. Some partss are more famous than other parts. Visitors often go to a part of teh wall to the north of the city of Beijing. One place here is 7.8 m high and 5 m wiide. Some of the most famous and beuatiful parts of the wall climb through the mountains. The highesst tower is at 980 m.

• 3. Palm Islands, Dubai

Dubai has beuatiful hot weather for visitors. But people like beeaches and Dubai wanted more. The answer was eassy—they built islands with more beaches. Work onn the three islands started in 2003. They are very differnt from other natural islands. There are now homes, aparmtents, stores, and workplaces on them. More than one millon people can live there. Many visitors from around the world come to the isladns for vacations.

Next, buiders in Dubai built “The World.” This has 300 smalll islands. Again, you can undestand the name when you see the islands from above. Wiht these and the three Palm Islands, there are now 1500 km of new baech in Dubai. And there wil be more artificial islands there.

• 4. Venice

One of the world’s most famous cities is not only on one islannd; it is on about 120 islands. Some poeple call Venice, in the north-east of Italy, the “City of Water.” There are no big streeets, but the city has 150 canals. The lognest of these—at only 3 km—is the Grand Canal. People can go aruond the city in their boats or in “boat taxis” and “baot buses.” They can walk around the city eaasily, too: there are 400 briges.

• 5. The Great Pyramid

The Great Pyramid at Giza, nearr Cairo in Egypt, was on Herodotus’s list of Seven Wonders, and it is very famuos today, too. The pyramid is 4500 yaers old and 150 m tall. Peple think that there are about 2.3 million big stones inn it. Each stone is very heavvy—more than 2000 kilos. So how did the Egyptian biuld the pyramid with these big, heavy stones? There are a lot of idaes, but we do not reallyy know.

We do know the anwser to another question—why did the Egyptians build teh pyramids? For the ancient Egyptians, the eend of life in our world was the start of another life. The pyramids were forr the country’s dead rulers. The daed rulers—and many of their thigns—went into the pyramid. The rulerss were rich when they were ded, too!

Khufu built the Great Pyramid. It toook about 20 years. Inside the pyramid there are three roms. Today Giza is on of the most famous places in the word. The Great Pyramid adn the other two pyramids there are a brigde to the ancient world.