Richard J. Sampson is a Lecturer in the University Education Center at Gunma University, Japan. His research interests concern situated exploration of the contextualised nature of the learning and teaching of foreign languages, the interrelations between language-learner self ideas, past, present and future learning experiences, and motivation.

• Tables and FiguresAcknowledgements      1. IntroductionPart One: Growth – A Research Narrative2. Groundings from Foreign Language Learning Motivation Research in Japan3. A Move to Socio-Dynamic Motivation4. Research Design5. Action Research NarrativePart Two: Re-viewing6. Revisiting Complex Systems Theory7. Class Group as Open System8. Co-Adaptation between Self and Environment9. Motivational Phase-Shifts and Self-Organisation across the Class Group10. Novel Motivational Emergence in the Class GroupPart Three: Reciprocity11. The Landscape of Classroom Motivation12. Conclusion and Iteration       AppendixGlossaryReferencesIndex

This is a deeply engaging and thought-provoking book that brings together action research, complexity thinking and self-and-identity perspectives to the analysis of language learning motivation as it evolved among persons-in-context in a particular classroom group over one year. Its reflexive insights will resonate with all of us interested in motivation as language teachers, researchers or teacher-researchers.