Chinese University Students’ Motivation to Learn Greek: A Transnational Postdigital Exploration

ABSTRACT Research on the motivation of learners of Languages Other Than English (LOTE) has grown steadily in recent years; however, most studies focus on classroom‐based activities and seldom consider how transnational experiences or digital practices contribute to motivational development. This study employs postdigital storytelling to qualitatively investigate how nine Chinese learners of Greek narratively construct their motivational selves throughout their Greek‐learning journeys informed by translanguaging and postdigital perspectives. Drawing on multiple data sources, including life‐history interviews, multimodal artifacts, and follow‐up interactions via email and social media, we conducted a multimodal thematic analysis to examine how LOTE motivational selves were constructed, expressed, and negotiated across digital and non‐digital linguistic activities. Findings show that participants’ motivation comprises an interplay of ought‐to, ideal, and multilingual selves. The ideal and multilingual selves were particularly activated during their transnational study experiences in Greece and through frequent social media engagement, where translanguaging served as a supportive mechanism for language development and intercultural identity formation. The study argues for conceptualizing a postdigital learning space in future research on language learning motivation—one that transcends conventional classroom settings to encompass wider processes of knowledge construction enabled through digital and non‐digital means.