Background and purpose

Today, insights into the motivation of L2 learners in universities and schools abound. However, findings can translate poorly to populations of adult migrants, where language proficiency is inextricably bound up with life opportunities, where the future is often uncertain, and where L2 learning is a long-time, high-stakes process (Ortega, 2019). To address this knowledge gap, the purpose of the research was (i) to identify motivation constructs relevant to the situation of adult L2 learners in circumstances of precarity, and (ii) to develop and validate scales to measure motivation. From the literature on motivational persistence, three constructs were identified as relevant to the investigation of adult migrants’ L2 motivation: Approach–Avoidance (AA) (Elliot, 2006), Hope (Snyder 2000), and Future Time Perspective (FTP) (Nuttin, 2014).

Procedures

For each construct, a preexisting scale was adapted for current purposes: AA (Lockwood et al., 2002), Hope (Snyder et al., 1996), and FTP (Nuttin, 2014). Following piloting, and using back translation methods, Arabic, Persian, and Russian language versions of each scale were created. Questionnaires containing these scales were administered to 193 adult migrants learning L2 Swedish. Data was inputted into SPSS (version 25). Validation procedures described in Botes et al. (2021) were used, with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) carried out in Mplus 8 (Muthen & Muthén, 1998–2017).

Results

For AA and Hope, the CFA showed adequate fit. Both scales demonstrated high internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha between .70 and .84, and McDonald’s omega between .70 and .84. Analysis of the AVE and factor loadings revealed acceptable values, indicating that the items included in each factor shared a high proportion of variance. For FTP, results of CFA were poor. Internal consistency and factor loadings were unacceptably low. Findings are discussed in relation to measures needed to investigate motivation in migrant populations.