The motivational evolution in EFL to ESL shift: A case of two Korean education migrants in Manila

The study stemmed from a continuing interest in the change in motivation of L2 learners who experience contextual shift using the possible selves framework (Dornyei, 2005). Specifically, it investigated the changes in the L2 motivational system of two South Korean university students in the Philippines. Using grounded-theory method, the two students were interviewed about their language learning experience prior and during the study abroad context. The findings demonstrated that the environment shift had influenced changes in their L2 motivational system. Although the learners' learning profiles were not identical, evident traces of positive motivation were present in their individual narrations. Furthermore, their L2 goals, perception on English language learning and the target community are what contributed to the changes in their L2 motivational system. The participants' statements also featured several traditional intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influenced their L2 self-images at varying levels. Moreover, the changes in the participants’ ideal L2 self as a competent English user appeared to be temporary because of the uncertainties that their national duties pose to their professional ambitions. The study also demonstrates the existence of L2 self in Korean learners. Keywordsmotivation; L2 self; L2 motivational system; L2 motivational self-system


INTRODUCTION
Motivation is a general term which has various definitions shaped by different disciplines and research contexts. Williams and Burden (1997) define motivation as "mental and emotional arousal leading to a conscious decision to act, which promotes sustained intellectual and/or physical effort for attaining a goal or goals" (p. 120). In the field of education, all kinds of learning use motivation as a fundamental factor which a learner should maintain throughout the learning process. As Brown (1994) posits, motivation is what drives a learner to take actions to achieve a certain goal. In second or foreign language learning (L2), most teachers would agree to the important role that motivation plays in language learning as evident in studies that investigated how it influences student learning (e.g. Gardner, 1985;Dornyei, 1990;Clement, Dornyei & Noels, 1994;Ellis, 1994). Dornyei (1997) emphasizes that motivation seems to be the biggest single factor affecting language learners' success. He further states that "motivation provides the primary impetus to initiate learning the L2 and later the driving force to sustain the long and often tedious learning process." (p. 26). Thus, students with strong learning motivation often study better than those with less or no learning motivation (Crookes & Schmidt, 1991). Deductively, Gardner's (1985) motivation theories and those that are offshoot (cf. Dornyei, 1990) of this model share the view of the social psychological approach which states that extrinsic rewards can lead to over-justification and a subsequent reduction in intrinsic motivation (Baumeister and Leary, 1995). It is then natural for humans to perform actions that are "the function of the social context and the interpersonal/intergroup relational patterns, as measured by means of the individual's social attitudes (Dornyei, 1998, p.2)" that may result in productive outcomes. Hence, it is compelling for humans to engage in meaningful social contacts for survival in the target community. As Gardner (1985) paved the way to intensify the interest of linguistic scholars in an attempt to yield the much needed consensus on L2 motivation, several theories were eventually conceptualized. For instance, Ushioda (1996) did a study on dynamic nature of motivation which claimed that motivation is subject to change because there is reciprocal causation between attitudinal variables and language learning and achievement. Another theory was that of the process model of L2 motivation by Dornyei and Otto (1998). According to the theory, it is possible that various motives drive a learner at different stages of the learning process. The process, based on Heckhausen and Kuhl's (1985)'s Action Control Theory, is divided into preactional, actional and postactional stages. Dornyei and Otto (1998) describes the preactional phase as the stage when a learner sets goals, form intention and enact intention. When the learner, implements actions to learn the language such as attending a language class, he/she undergoes the actional phase. Accordingly, the moment the learner evaluates the outcome of his/her learning and prepares for future action, the postactional phase sets in. In a more recent article, Ryan (2006) used globalization as a variable to explain the growing number of people from different parts of the world to learn English. In doing so, he stressed that learners' motivation to learn English is brought about by their need to constantly assess the status of their membership of the global community. As can be seen, it still seems necessary to conduct further investigations with respect to the diaspora that occurs on a global scale. For one, maintenance of motivation may be a pedagogical concern among teachers of language learners in both ESL and EFL contexts. According to Dornyei (1990), attitudes and motivation may vary depending on whether learners are learning a second language or a foreign language. This phenomenon may be true in the case of EFL learners as they learn in an ESL context due to a number of factors such as the difficulty in adjusting themselves to the new learning environment (Hsieh, 2009). To explain the phenomenon and related issues, theories on motivation were proposed by psycholinguistic scholars. One recent development in L2 motivation constructs that can be cited is that of Dörnyei's (2005) L2 Motivational Self System. Central to this idea is that motivation is a part of language learners' self system, in which a language learners' ideal and ought-to L2 selves are the primary components of the system. Another is also Dornyei Gardner's (1985) concept of motivation describes one's desire to learn an L2 of a valued community so that one can communicate with members of the community and sometimes even become like one of the target speech community, more commonly known as the integrativeness motivation. This approach treats L2 motivation as something that is conceptualized as a part of language learners' self system. Moreover, the L2 Motivational Self System refers to how individuals think about their potential about their future (Markus & Nurius's, 1986). Dornyei (2005Dornyei ( , 2009) believes that a language learner's future possible self is the primary motivational factor because a learner may have a desire to bridge the gap between his/her actual self and his/her projected goal. It specifically projects that the ideal and the ought-to L2 selves of learners are the central components of the lear ners' self system. The ideal L2 self, according to Dornyei (2005), refers to an ideal image of the kind of L2 user one aspires to be in the future. On the other hand, the ought-to self refers to the attributes that one believes one ought to possess as a result of perceived duties, obligations, or responsibilities (Dornyei, 2005). Dornyei and Ushioda (2009) add that the L2 self system is dynamic; hence, it is not static and is subject to change, thus demonstrating Dornyei's temporal aspect of motivation. Apart from the ideal and ought-to L2 self, Dornyei incorporates a third self dimension in his conceptualization of the L2 Motivational Self System. According to him, the immediate language learning environment and experience are also significant in the L2 learning process due to their positive influence to the learner. Hence, it is understood that one's L2 self system also rely on the L2 Learning experience. Ushioda (2001) also made her own interpretation of Dornyei's concept of L2 motivation. However, her version was not totally different from the ideal self and the oughtto self, and the L2 Learning experience posited by Dornyei. What appears to be the highlight of Ushioda's version is her suggestion that a learner's motivation is formed through social interaction. She further stresses the dynamism and complexity of the relationship of a learner and his/her responses to specific learning events and experiences. (Ushioda, 2009 Skyrme (2007) and Xu (2010) have paid attention to the change in motivation in the context of environment shift. However, investigation on the change of motivation of EFL learners in a nonnative speaking environment such as the Philippines may be scarce perhaps because of the traditional notion that EFL learners choose to learn English in countries belonging to the Inner Circle. Hence, it is the research gap that the current study intends to bridge. Specifically, the study focuses on the motivational changes of Korean education migrants in the Philippines who experienced EFL to ESL shift. The Philippines may be an interesting locale for linguistic studies due to the richness of variables influenced by the different linguistic phenomena. One example is Ryan's (2006) view that English is currently the language of globalization (Ryan, 2006), and that this has positioned English to be a principal asset among worldwide speech communities. The Philippines for instance has capitalized on its ability to speak like that of Americans partly due to the latter's colonization of the former about six decades ago. It is believed that more than 90% Filipinos use can speak and understand English since the language is used in various forms of communication (Magno, 2010). Due to this, EFL learners from as far as Libya, Colombia, Iran and South Korea come to the country to pursue their education. In fact, the London based news agency British Broadcasting Company tagged it as the World's budget English teacher because of relatively cheaper costs compared to that of education in Western countries (McGeown, 2012). Meanwhile, English for Koreans is learned as a foreign language (EFL) because they learn English in a country whose L1 is not English. According to Ramirez (2013), South Koreans are among the highest spenders on English Education, and this has attracted native speakers, who Magno (2010) observes as competitive and accurate with the English language. However, despite the positive outlook and promise that programs such as English Program in Korea bring, several issues arise. Among those found to be problematic are age of initial instruction, access to effective English instruction, and professional development needs of NNS English teachers (Igawa, 2007). These issues and personal reasons such as regarding the financial aspect have prompted the diaspora of learners as young as elementary students to different countries. In 2008, there were almost 30,000 children who left South Korea to study abroad (Magno, 2010). One of the primary destinations is the Philippines. In fact, it was reported that there were 6,000 South Koreans who enrolled in language academies, colleges and universities in 2011 in the said South-East Asian country. (www.immigration.gov.ph). With the constant diaspora of South Korean learners in the Philippines, it is interesting to know the possibilities of changes in motivation that occur among learners who pursue their education in the country given the concerns on security, quality of living and even quality of education. However, without empirical evidence, the answers may be apparent based on periodicals (Diola, 2013;Santos;. What the current study can add to the field of second language research are insights on possible changes in the motivation of the Koreans to learn English at the moment their EFL environment is switched to ESL context, capitalizing on Gardner's (1985) socio-educational model and Dornyei and Otto's (1998) process model of L2 motivation, and Dornyei's (2005) L2 motivational self system. Overall, the current study realizes the complexity and profoundness of the transition of learning contexts of EFL learners to ESL. As it intends to describe the language learners' L2 motivation shifts, it adopts Dornyei's (2005) L2 motivational Self System. It specifically seeks to describe the education transition and experience of two Koreans in the Philippines resulting in the evolution of their L2 motivational self-system. Additionally, it aims to identify the nature and sources of motivational changes. Lastly, the study intends to confirm the existence of L2 self among the said learners.

METHODOLOGY
In conducting the study, Dornyei's (2001) principle that a deep interview with a language learner provides rich data to answer research questions of such nature was applied. In doing so, two tertiary level South Korean students from two Manila tertiary level educational institutions were chosen to participate in the study. Aside from the researcher's affiliation to the said institutions, the two learners were chosen because of their experiences in attending language classes in South Korea and the Philippines. The length of their stay in the Philippines was also taken into consideration. This criterion was backed by Slavoff and Johnson (1995)'s suggestion that learners acquire a second language after at least three years of learning; hence, motivational changes could have transpired in the entire duration. Each student was also assessed at approximately contrasting proficiency level based on their class standing in their previous English Communication course. This criterion is believed to reveal how different levels of fluency reflect the motivation of the learners. The first participant was a 20-year old male second year BS Education Major in English student in one of the largest universities in Manila. After attending middle school in Paju in South Korea, Young Woo came to Manila in 2012 to finish high school at a basic education department of a Christian school in Bulacan. He had a consistent above average scores in his English classes with a mean of B+ (88.5) in college and A-(90.4) in high school. Aside from the fact that his older brother was in the Philippines for education prior to his arrival, he claimed that he was sent to the Philippines by his parents due to the perceived importance of learning English. In addition, he stated that the Philippines is the only country that he has visited thus far. Meanwhile, the second participant, Tae Hyun, was also a male college student in a private college in Manila; he was Hotel and Restaurant major. He finished high school at a Catholic school in the southern part of the Philippine capital. During the data gathering, he was turning 22 years old and had lived in the Philippines for almost four years. Based on the preliminary interview, the decision of his mother to send him to the Philippines was due to his poor academic performance in middle school in Gwangju in South Korea. He claimed that his grades were either failing or passing. This performance was also evident in his final scores in high school and college. He obtained relatively low scores (i.e. C or 74.7 in high school and C-or 71.2 in college). In fact, he even repeated his Academic Writing class when he was a first year college student. In terms of educational experience, although he has travelled to two other Asian countries, he has study abroad experience only in the Philippines. Since the goal of the study was to discover the motivational changes of the Korean learners across the EFL and ESL contexts, it was necessary to focus on the learners' learning profiles and account for their progress based on their own point of view. In order to do so, separate semi-structured interviews were conducted which was believed to allow the participants provide any valuable information that are perceived to be appropriate for the study rather than simply responding to the interview questions from the researcher. This strategy permitted a grounded theory approach, specifically an emic perspective because it allowed themes, patterns, and concepts to emerge from the interview data. The interview method also allowed the researcher to seek clarifications through follow up questions. Regarding the interview questions, Hsieh's (2009) interview questions were adopted (see Appendix A). Some of the questions had to be simplified for comprehension reasons as a result of a pilot interview with another Korean learner. The fourth year university student was randomly chosen for the pilot interview, and based on the researcher's observation, the female student had difficulty addressing the questions due to vocabulary issues. After the revision, the participant appeared to have better understanding the questions. The questions had three sections. The first section focused on the participants' general attitude toward learning English, and reasons for pursuing education in the Philippines. The next part concentrated on their motivational changes across different stages of their learning process. It particularly centered on the participants' motivational changes before and after they came to the Philippines The last part was about the participants' learning experience over their stay in the Philippines and how these experiences made impact to their L2 self concept and their motivation to learn English. The pilot interview and the interview proper were conducted in the midterm period of the third trimester of academic year 2014-2015 (i.e. February 2015). At that point, the participants have had taken their English classes which mostly concentrated on writing; they still had to take their speech classes in the subsequent trimester. As an addition to the selection process mentioned, both participants were referred by the researcher's colleagues. After agreeing to participate in the study, the interviews were conducted in classrooms of the participants' respective schools based on schedule. Schedules were determined based on their availability as reservation of the classrooms was necessary. Naturally, English was used as medium of instruction in both interviews. For transcription, a smart mobile phone was used for recording. The first interview lasted for approximately 42 minutes, and the second one, which happened a day after the first interview, had a duration of 34 minutes. Transcription of relevant extracts from the interview took place a day after the second interview. For accuracy of the transcription and the thematic categorization of the responses, an inter-rater's aid was sought. The inter-rater was a faculty member of the De La Salle University and a PhD in Applied Linguistics holder who specialize in the areas of Second Language Acquisition and Pscyholinguistics. The analysis of data was based on Corbin & Strauss' (2007) grounded theory in which emerging categories were identified from the participants' words. After re-reading the transcript, open coding was applied in the coding process. There was approximately 95% agreement between the researcher and inter-rater regarding the coding of the participants' responses.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Results from the interview suggest that there are changes in the motivation of the chosen Korean education migrants in the Philippines. Based on the responses, the language learners tend to be more motivated in the ESL setting rather than in an EFL setting. However, as there were considerably similar pattern of responses from both learners, there were also slight variations in their L2 selfsystem due to different factors. These factors will be discussed in this section of the study. Changes in Young Woo's L2 Motivational Self Images In general, Young Woo demonstrated a positive attitude toward learning English and this is evident in how he connects with foreigners whom he can communicate with in order to learn English even before he came to the Philippines. The location of his residence, which was at a popular tourist destination in South Korea, appears to have strengthened his desire to improve his English communication skills. Young Woo's act reflects Dornyei's (2009) proposition that the ideal L2 self serves as an effective motivator if is accompanied by concrete plans and strategies. Consequently, he attended language academy after school hours as an additional input. The extract below summarizes his language learning experience in South Korea.
Actually The statement of Young Woo suggests a conventional and functional case of language learning. This can be seen in the activities that he performed that allowed him to adapt to the culture of English speaking people. It should be noted that at a young age, Young Woo was able to strategize in learning the language aside from the tutorial class he attended; he took advantage of the situation that enabled him to expose himself to people who speak in English. Gardner's (1985) integrativeness approach is reflected in this scenario because Young Woo showed positive disposition toward the L2 community and a desire to interact and identify with its members. This particular scenario, however, can be considered circumstantial since not all learners have the opportunity to immerse themselves with the members of the target community, particularly among learners in South Korea. The availability of the L2 community in Young Woo's environment did not make him complacent with his skills. His motivation to learn appear to have increased as he became more determined to achieve more than what he had earned. Clearly, not all learners in the middle school age, i.e. 12-16, would have the awareness of the need to intensively learn English; and in the same way, the same age group does not practically devise strategies on how to improve language skills unless otherwise told to do so. He took courage to approach and talk to foreigners who visit his family's business. Yashima (2009) labels this as "international posture" or the act of relating to the international community using English. Convincingly, this notion of international posture may have served as encouragement for Young Woo to establish short-term communicative relationship with foreigners. His ability to juggle communicative tasks between foreigners and fellow Koreans paved way for his ambition to become an interpreter upon recognizing his ability to be fluent in both Korean and English. Being an English major and foreigner in an English-speaking environment helped him reach this realization.
Right Being an English Education Major, he could verbalize that he is speaking the target language for communicative reasons more than grammatical. Unexpectedly, he considers his learning endeavor as communicative which is a term that might not be comprehensive for language learners. He also highlighted his appreciation to the people around him whom he has communicated with. Through interpersonal communication, he has gained enough confidence in speaking the language. Conclusively, the scenario depicts an interpersonal relationship driven motivation. However, he claims that his language skills are not sufficient as he still has to learn more in order to achieve not only his academic goals but professional goals.
I  Ryan and Deci's (2000) classification of intrinsic motivation. Operationally, intrinsic motivation is one's desire to search for new knowledge within his/her own capacity. In addition, anxiety did not seem to be evident in Young Woo as he was generally satisfied with his progress. It is quite surprising that there is positivity in his statements despite the challenges and difficulties in learning English. Moreover, although he envisioned that all of what he was doing would be converted to professional success, he is aware that the outcome will not be achieved any time soon as he still had to fulfill military duties after his university education.
After At the time that the current study was drafted, Young Woo was on his way to become a junior college student at his university. Among the Korean learners that the writer has known, it was Young Woo who has demonstrated utmost confidence in carrying conversations. His choice of words was comparatively better than his contemporaries, and the sentence structures were more complex. He shared that he was writing a research paper for his undergraduate course, and he enjoyed the difficulty in doing it because it require him to strive harder. He even claimed that if he were in another country, he would still learn English because he has this desire to learn the language. Convincingly, there is instrumental and job-related motivation during the EFL to ESL transition based on the 'L2 self' that Young Woo presented. Changes in Taehyun's L2 Motivational Self Images Although the second participant, Taehyun, had similar responses to that of Young Woo's, there were, however, explicit differences. An obvious distinction was his lack of motivation in learning English. He shared that the reason why he was sent to Manila by his parents was because of his failing marks when he was in middle school. Academic problems continued until his stay in the Philippines because he had to re-take some of his courses. In addition, he was unlike Young Woo who was more than willing to come to the Philippines because the former felt that Korea was his home. He felt that he was powerless and that he had to comply with his mother's order to continue his studies in Manila.
My Based on Taehyun's narration, the academic failure prompted him to be on a study-abroad context. Specifically, it can be signified that there was a strong household influence since his parents decide what he had to do, and more importantly, he felt that he was being compared to his sibling. Eaton and Dembo (1997) explain that it is quite natural for Asian parents dictate the educational path of their children, and this is due to their high expectations vis-à-vis academic performance. In this case, Taehyun's parents believed that sending their son to the Philippines would improve his academic achievement; apparently, what is happening is in contrast to what was initially expected. Furthermore, by saying that "it (Korea) is my home", it should be noted that Taehyun's close attachment to his country may add to the issues regarding his academic failure. Evidently, there could be some form of culturally driven separation anxiety that prevents him from performing well. The label 'home' for his country which expresses detachment to the target community may be expected as Koreans are generally known for their nationalistic trait (Dykas, 2014). Taehyun's seemingly helpless state, being sent to the Philippines to pursue his education, has contributed to the lack and even absence of motivation to learn. He clarified that he was not willing to be sent abroad but he could not do anything about the situation. Unlike Young Woo, he was upfront in admitting that he does not have intensions to learn English. In other words, he did not have the motivation to learn English. He added that even when he was still in Korea, he did not enjoy his language tutorial sessions which lasted for several hours on weekdays primarily due to boredom. All of the said factors could describe Taehyun's ideal self and ought-to self prior to his arrival to the Philippines until the transition period. This factor exhibiting his refusal to learning English can be labeled as negative perceptions (Dornyei, 2001) on English language learning which could have lead to his subsequent resistance to learn English. Ha (2008) explains that there are instances when English language learners maintain a mindset that resists English integration into their system. As for Taehyun's case, it was more of a personal choice that was triggered by initial negative experiences.
I  Savignon, 1983) notional and functional design. According to this concept, learners are exposed to the use situations that enable them to use language to achieve a specific purpose. In this case, Taehyun engaged himself to communicative events with foreigners for the purpose of surviving in a foreign country.  Gardner and Lambert's (1972) instrumental motivation. He felt that in order for him to finish college is the primary reason why he needed English. He further emphasized that although he found it difficult to study English, it will be an avenue for his academic and professional success. However, unlike Young Woo, Taehyun was uncertain of his goals as he could not cite what he intend to be after his tertiary education despite pursuing a degree in the field of hospitality management. One reason for not being able to plan ahead is, similar to Young Woo, he also he had to submit himself to the mandatory military training. What is certain is that he would need to use his English skills in obtaining a college degree and passing tests such as TOEIC which is a requirement in various Korean companies. Understandably, his L2 self is limited to academic motivation. The case of Taehyun shows how the complex and dynamic nature of motivation come into play as his resistance and adherence to learn the language interact. Additionally, Taehyun's evaluation of his L2 self reveals the factors that contributed to the changes in his motivation, i.e. emotions, choice, personal needs. Dornyei's concept of the L2 transformative process can be depicted here. The relationship of Taehyun's ideal and ought to selves are represented by his pictured societal role as an EFL student who is compelled to learn the language and negative attitude by positioning himself outside the speech community, respectively. Overall, the study shows that under different circumstances, the L2 motivational characters of Korean education migrants were dependent on various factors that developed during the EFL to ESL transition period. Dornyei (2009) posits that a learner's possible self could change in a specific period of time due to the non-static nature of motivation. Clearly, the statements made by Young Woo and Taehyun explain how the change in their L2 selves were influenced by their personal choices and aims such as in the aspect of academics and professional aspirations, and real life experiences including intensification of their motivation to learn through immersion and engagement in communicative events. This finding corroborates with Dornyei's (2009) and Noels' (2003) proposition that L2 goals and contextual situations guide the learners' learning behaviors. Young Woo already had an ideal L2 self prior to the contextual shift due to intrinsic motivation. As for Taehyun, although he displayed negative attitude toward learning English, he was motivated to learn the language for practical, i.e. academic, reasons. Understandably, the ideal and ought-to L2 selves are relevant in seeking explanations for the motivation of L2 learners specifically when its dynamic nature is in focus (Dornyei, 2005(Dornyei, , 2009. As depicted in the interviews, the L2 self system appears to have covered Young Woo's and Taehyun's overt and covert intention to learn English at varying levels considering that the environmental context is in focus. Young Woo was more concentrated to learn on a wider scale, specifically comprising the social, academic and professional ambitions while Taehyun was influenced solely by academic achievement. The L2 self system also serves as a viable theory to investigate EFL learners' aspirations to immerse themselves to the target community. The psychological and emotional effect caused by sense of belongingness to the new speech community might denote a learner's acknowledgment of the various benefits resulting from English language learning (Dornyei, 2009). With the statements given by the students, L2 self does exist in a way that they use themselves as their motivation in their L2 learning. The ideal self is demonstrated by what their personal aspirations are (e.g. profession) while the ought-to self is exhibited through the learners' perceived responsibilities (e.g. degree holder); such findings are congruent to what previous studies such as Chen (2012), Kim (2012), Papi (2010), Shoaib (2004) and Tuan (2012) have found. It is interesting to note that the two may be said that the ideal self and the ought-to self appear to overlap with traditional notions of motivation such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation or integrative or instrumental motivation, and that it is perhaps a future undertaking to identify what separates these forms of motivation from each other. A significant thematic finding in the study is the occurrence of relatively rapid changes in the motivation of Young Woo and Taehyun in a short span of time. Though it is expected that the learners' selves are subject to change due to the EFL to ESL shift, they manifested short term and circumstantial changes, most especially Young Woo. Both learners' L2 self image changed when their self images interacted with various factors such as learning goals and learning environment. The same findings were found by Hsieh (2009) when Taiwanese learners exhibited short-term changes in their L2 self images after experiencing study abroad context. Dornyei (2009) proposed that L2 self image of this nature may act as long term goals in which possible self image changes are caused by various consequential developments.

CONCLUSION
The study intended to investigate the changes in L2 self motivational system of two Korean education migrants in the Philippines and the contributors to the said changes. It revealed that there are apparent complexities in the motivation of L2 learners as discussed in previous literature. In addition, this feature of L2 motivation can be explained by the existence of a number of factors in the motivation of learners which were identified in the study. The changes that occurred in the L2 self of the Korean education migrants were identified through the qualitative approach which allowed a thorough discussion and firsthand account of how changes occur as such diaspora takes place. In addition, the study was able to uncover the interaction among the learners' L2 self images and their interplay with motivation. Ultimately, the study has contributed to our understanding of how a learner's L2 motivational system develops over a specific period of time and across different contexts as initially posed by Dornyei. Furthermore, the study served as an avenue to investigate an issue that has traditionally been qualitative in nature (e.g. Shoaib, 2004;Hsieh 2009). While viability for generalization of findings is naturally in question, what the study offered was a rich description of the process of motivational change and the development of L2 selves of different learner profiles. It can therefore be deduced that the ESL environment, as in the case of the Philippines, may cause positive motivation for EFL learners. In the aspect of theory, it can be said that the existence of L2 self is confirmatory on the basis of where the sources of motivation come from. Further research may address issues on the maintenance of the selves that have developed during the contextual shift. It would be interesting to learn what selves are formed after the learners have achieved their L2 goals, and the same goes for those who fail to do so. Additionally, there is a need to address the question of whether the goals do change alongside motivation.