LOTE learning motivation in multilingual workplace Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación

. This study aims to investigate the LOTE learning motivation profiles of adult learners at a multilingual workplace and the interplay of multilevel factors affecting LOTE learning motivation. To address the research objectives, we undertook this case study on a Spanish bank subsidiary in China by conducting semi-structured interviews with three senior managers at varying LOTE language proficiency levels. Premised on a person-in-context relational perspective, interview data analysis revealed the participants LOTE motivation change trajectories resulting from the dynamic interplay of related factors. Further analysis of the narratives identified the interplay between key contextual and individual factors affecting the participants’ LOTE learning motivation at different levels, namely social cultural and institutional. The results emphasise the person-in-institutional context relation and the significance of team climate, language beliefs and identity in influencing LOTE learning motivation. person-in-context outside the classroom. 2.3. This 3.1. Focal Case Company. 3.2. 3.3. Data Analysis. Findings. Lucy’s of (L3) (L4) learning. Jack’s profile of Spanish (L3) learning. (L3)


Introduction
The growing global economic integration leads to an increasing amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China. Since China's entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001, the FDI inflows to China has increased significantly, from US$46.9 billion in 2001 to US$141.2 billion in 2019 (UNCTAD, 2020). Ranked by FDI stock by the end of 2018, the top 15 FDI investors in China are Hong Kong, British Virgin Islands, Japan, Singapore, the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, the Cayman Islands, Germany, Samoa, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Macau, and Mauritius (MOC, 2019). Taking investment from the European Union (EU) in 2018 as an example, US$10.4 billion flowed into China, increased 25.7% year-on-year, and accounted for 7.5% of the national total. A total of 2,425 newly established foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) were headquartered in the EU, 33.5% more than in 2017. This indicates that an increasing number of multinational companies (MNCs) originating from non-English speaking countries (for example Asian and EU countries) establish subsidiaries in China. The growth of MNCs from non-English speaking countries generate an increasing demand for employees who speak languages other than English (LOTE).
According to the review on language issues in international business contexts (Tenzer, Terjesen, & Harzing, 2017), language is increasingly conceptualised as being 'multifaceted, complex, and dynamic' by socio-and psycholinguists. Research on the pervasive effects of language may have a profound impact on international business and management (Piekkari, Welch, & Welch, 2014), including studies on language use and management (for example, Feely & Harzing, 2003;Spolsky, 2009). Languages used in MNC's workplace are home (parent company) language, corporate language, and host (local foreign) language (Thomas, 2008;Harzing & Pudelko, 2013). MNCs originating from non-English speaking countries are faced with an issue of language choices: using English as lingua franca at the workplace or using the language spoken in their headquarters as their 'corporate language' (Cheng & Zhao, 2019;Zhao, Du, & Tan, 2021). Since language plays a significant role in daily communication, cultural integration and social identification (McDonough, 1994), a good command of 'corporate language' is critical to show employees' linguistic competence and facilitate communications at multilingual workplaces. Therefore, employees working in subsidiaries of MNCs are motivated to learn LOTE or a third language (L3) while working.
As it directly influences learners' strategies, performance and outcomes, motivation has long been studied in the field of language learning. Language learning motivation is defined as 'the dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person that initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritised, operationalised, and (successfully or unsuccessfully) acted out'. (Dörnyei & Ottó, 1998, p. 65) It has been widely accepted by researchers as one of the key factors influencing the success of foreign language learning. A large amount of theoretical discussion and research has been conducted related to foreign language learning motivation (for example, Dörnyei, 2001;Gardner, 1985;Gardner & Lambert, 1972). However, most studies have concentrated on second language (L2) motivation and focused on L2 English learning (Boo, Dörnyei, & Ryan, 2015), which reveals the underrepresentation of LOTE learning motivation. Studies were largely conducted in classroom settings instead of other learning environments, such as multilingual workplaces. Therefore, this study intends to respond to the need for more studies focusing on the evolving LOTE motivation at the workplace and analysing factors that influence LOTE motivation at multiple levels.

Literature review
Research on language learning motivation has gone through major paradigm shifts from the cognitive perspective (e.g. L2 Motivational Self System) to social cultural perspective (e.g. Person-in-context Relational View and Motivational Dynamics) (Dörnyei, 2005(Dörnyei, , 2009Ushioda, 2009;Dörnyei, Henry, & MacIntyre, 2014). As quantitative methodologies make assumptions about the normal distribution of certain traits, research on motivation as individual differences focuses on averages and aggregates shared by groups of people. Bandura (2001) argued that these models studied 'not people but their componentised subpersonal parts'. These models are also criticised that they generally define contextual factors as background variables independent from people (Ushioda, 2009). Furthermore, L2 English learning is by far predominant in the field of motivation studies and mainly examined within a certain duration and samples of students in classroom contexts (Boo et al., 2015). Further research to engage in the discussion on LOTEs and experiences outside the classroom has the potential to expand the understanding of language learning motivation (Al-Hoorie, 2017).

Ushioda's person-in-context relational view
In response to challenges confronted by linear studies, Ushioda (2009) proposed a relational view of multiple contextual factors and to regard motivation as an organic process in which persons interplay with those factors. Ushioda's person-in-context relational view understands the participants as people, instead of merely language learners, with 'unique local particularities ' (2009, p. 216) and 'as self-reflective intentional agent[s], inherently part of and shaping [their] own context' (2019, p. 208). From a sociocultural perspective, the learner is highly connected with the social context, and the learner's development is based on the interplay between their innate capacities and socio-culturally constructed means (Lantolf & Pavlenko, 1995). Language learning motivation is viewed as emerging from social interaction, recognising the dynamic interdependence between individual and sociocultural forces (van Lier, 1996;Ushioda, 2006). For example, with the 'person-in-context relational' view as a theoretical and methodological lens, Nikoletou (2017) argued that language learners' willingness to communicate in L2 should be understood as part of their larger meaning-making practices, instead of merely as interactional encounters. Pfenninger and Singleton (2016) confirmed the interplay between context-varying factors (including school-, class-and subject-level) and learner-level variables (e.g. L2 starting age) based on a multilevel analyses. They found that the effects of starting age, gender and class size on L2 achievement vary across classes and/or schools. Meanwhile, the broader educational context played an important role in influencing students' future L2 self-states.

LOTEs motivation and experiences outside the classroom
In response to the need for more discussion on LOTEs, an increasing number of studies expanded the scope of language learning motivation and took LOTE and L3 learning into account. Scholars tend to agree that L2 English im-pacts negatively on LOTE and L3 learning motivation because of the global status of English and the English-LOTE imbalance in the research (Calafato & Tang, 2019;Csizér & Lukács 2010;Henry, 2011;Busse, 2017;Nakamura, 2019;Ushioda, 2017). As a result, Al-Hoorie (2017) argue that the motivation dynamics to learn L2 English might be distinct from those for learning LOTEs. Integrative motivation seems to resurface to explain LOTE and L3 learners thinking themselves as part of a localised community rather than a global citizen.
Since Crookes and Schmidt (1991) called for more classroom-based concepts of motivation, a large amount of research has been conducted based in classrooms across different levels of education, from primary to tertiary. According to Boo et al. (2005), as a research target, the largest participant group is made up of college/university students, because they are most easily accessible and require the least strict research ethics (compared to high school students). However, there is a paucity of research on participants after graduation from college and how non-classroom/school contextual factors impact participants' language learning motivation. This is partially due to the limited availability of the participants and their inclusion in adult learning studies. While the key theoretical frameworks in L2 motivation research are not age-specific and have been chiefly validated by studies conducted with learners in universities (Ferrari, 2013), we assume that they may be extensively adopted to study adult participants.
From the perspective of modern education, adult learners' main life tasks are not related to education (Gravett, 2005) and their role of learner is added with other full-time roles and responsibilities (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007). That leads to certain influential theories and philosophies of adult learning, including andragogy (Knowles, 1970(Knowles, , 1984 and transformative learning (Mezirow, 1991). At the same time, adult learning is often linked to training in the workplace. Considering language learning at workplace, following Zimmerman's model (1998), in addition to "discourse identities" as language learners, these participants at workplace may have 'situated identities' as managers, employees, and colleagues and 'transportable identities' as parents and children. Lanvers (2012) and Wright and Mc-Grory (2005) agreed that self-perception of learners' identity may motivate or demotivate language learning.
Beside learners' experience and perception, the macro-level social discourse within one country may exert the profound influence upon individual learners' motivation. It has huge potential to investigate in non-Anglophone contexts, such as Japan and China, where English is the dominant L2 language in the educational system (Bolton & Graddol, 2012;Gong, Gao, Li, & Lai, 2020;Zheng, Lu, & Ren, 2019. Concomitant with the observed trends is the growing research attention to L3 learning in Chinese schools and universities. For example, Lu, Zheng and Ren (2019) investigated the motivation of Chinese college students learning Spanish as their university major without dropping English study. They found students learning English for their 'ideal L2 selves' and others learning Spanish for their 'ought-to-be L3 selves'. Students may also aspire to integrate into an imaginary international community because of the lack of direct integration with true LOTE contexts (Lamb, 2004(Lamb, , 2009). Furthermore, the national foreign language policy, selfperception of multilingual/international posture, and imagined identities may have an impact on learners' motivation (Yashima, 2009;Zheng, Lu, & Ren, 2019).

This study
In response to Boo et al.'s (2015) call for diversifying the demographics of the participants and research on languages other than global English, this study intends to investigate LOTE motivation at multilingual workplace. Adopting a relational view of multiple contextual factors and considering motivation as a dynamic process that fluctuates through the complicated interplay of multilevel factors, this research attempts to expand the current sociocultural perspective of language learning motivation. We aim to address the following research question: What are multilevel factors (individual and contextual) and how these factors interplay to influence LOTE motivation at workplace?

Method
Although scholars still have a strong preference for quantitative research (Boo et al., 2015), non-quantitative research techniques have begun to be applied the field, in particular, semi-structured interviews and diary studies (for example, Lamb, 2004Lamb, , 2007Ushioda, 2006Ushioda, , 2008Ushioda, , 2009. Wang and Liu (2020) believed that interviewing allows focuses on learners' individuality and the temporal and context-sensitive aspects of learners' L3 motivation. Other innovative qualitative methods further develop the scope of research area, for example, Clarke and Hennig's (2013) vignette illustration of one learner's experience and narratives and stories (Murray, 2008;Sade, 2011;Gao, 2013;Harvey, 2017), which have the potential to conceptualise motivation. We agree that interviewing is appropriate as it could capture individual LOTE learning trajectories and delineate the dynamic interactions of highly contextualised factors at different levels.

Case study company
This case study was conducted at a branch of a Spanish bank located in Shanghai. This Spanish bank is one of the world's largest retail and commercial banks and operates in a global market with its main subsidiaries in European and South American countries. It acquired certain stake of a local bank in Shanghai to expand its global network in 2013, and thus established its branches in China. This is a typical example of MNCs whose headquarters and branches are based in non-English speaking countries. Regarding the language use, employees working in the headquarters in Spain use Spanish and English as their corporate language, while employees in the Shanghai branch mainly use Putonghua and English.

Participants
We choose three senior managers working at the Spanish bank branch located in Shanghai for semi-structured interviews. All of them have rich language learning experience in various contexts, in particular at workplace and in different cultures. They are in charge of human resources, strategic development, retailing and commercial banks, respectively. They speak Putonghua or Spanish as their mother tongue (L1) and have a high proficiency level of English (L2). Because of their multilingual educational and working experiences at multiple geographical sites in Spain, mainland China and Hong Kong, they have varying proficiency levels for Spanish, Putonghua and Cantonese (L3 and L4). Therefore, they are considered to be appropriate and typical cases for understanding senior managers' LOTE learning motivation because of their discrepancies in LOTE proficiency and their projected identification with China or Spain. Having worked in the international banking industry for about ten years, they have all had experiences of working in various departments and teams, such as retail and commercial banking, global corporate banking, and central services (for example, risk control and product marketing). See Table 1 for their detailed information.

Data collection and analysis
To address the research goal of understanding the complexity of LOTE learning motivation at multinational workplaces, this study reports an exploratory case-study approach that investigated the trajectories of LOTE learning motivation of the three senior managers at a multinational bank originated from Spain with its subsidiaries located in China. The interviews took place at the Shanghai branch in 2018. All interviews were individually conducted in a faceto-face semi-structured format. Lucy, Jack and Kent preferred to be interviewed in Putonghua, of which they are native speakers. During the interview, they also used English expressions when they felt them to be necessary or convenient. The interview with Lewis was conducted in English, which was the only language that could be understood by both interviewers and the interviewee.
Each interview lasted about 45 minutes and was recorded with the interviewees' permission. The transcripts were made by two research assistants from audio files, which were presented as a single-spaced 40-page document. We used the qualitative research software MAXQDA to categorise and code data. The themes and codes came from an overview of existing literature and were further developed from the comparison between interview responses and the predefined codes.
Following Ushioda's person-in-context theory (2009), we decided to explore an adult learner's relations with contexts at different levels. In brief, contextual factors are divided into two levels: sociocultural and institutional. At the sociocultural level, we studied the nation's language environment and relevant language policies which learners inhabit at different times. The institutional level considers languages used in the company, specific department or team. We also explored the learner's perception of language and their identity. The relation between theoretical factors and interview questions are shown by Table 2.

Findings
This research aims to investigate LOTE learners' vision on their language learning experience in multilingual workplaces and the interplay of multilevel factors that influence their LOTE learning motivation. Three in-depth interviews were analysed as three independent cases to delineate distinct trajectories of learners' LOTE motivation, which were followed by a cross-case comparison in section 5.

Lucy's profile of Cantonese (L3) and Spanish (L4) learning
Born and raised in China, Lucy experienced bilingual education in college in Shanghai. During the first five years of her career in a multinational bank, her major working languages were Putonghua and English. At that time, she had no intention to study or work in a multilingual environment (shown by Stage 1 in Figure 1). However, the opportunity of job rotation to Hong Kong triggered her curiosity towards the local sociocultural and linguistic environment, which was different from mainland China's in 2005. The change in environment and accompanying change in her sense of belonging are revealed by her retrospective: When I was in college, my dad was particularly interested in sending me abroad for a master as I grew up in school... But I, personally, was not interested in studying abroad at all and wanted to find a job at that time [after graduation from college]… When I went there, I felt Hong Kong was… like another world. So broadened my vision. It was completely different from what I had thought about, the way of doing things, the state of life and the state of mind, as if a door was opened. So, from that time, I generated a strong interest in the outside world, so I was actually trying to stay in Hong Kong. (Interview originally in Putonghua) Hong Kong is a multilingual environment where the principal language is Cantonese. Supervised by a local manager who rarely spoke English, Lucy needed to work with a local team and communicate with local business partners. Although their clients could speak adequate English, they still chose to use Cantonese in daily communication. The Cantonese-speaking business context and team climate served as a determining factor to boost her language learning motivation. As shown by: I went to the Department of local corporate; all the clients were local enterprises in Hong Kong. Therefore, the people all talked in Cantonese. My supervisor talked to me every day in Cantonese staring from my first day of work. He didn't care if you can't understand… All the clients were local firms in Hong Kong. So people all talk in Cantonese… So I learned quickly. (Interview originally in Putonghua) At the individual level, Lucy was courageous to practise an unfamiliar language at such a young age. She also believed that she was talented in language learning, showing confidence derived from her past L2 learning experience. Therefore, she developed a good command of Cantonese within several months. (Shown by Stage 2 in Figure 1) I was 23, learning language very fast. And the newborn calf is not afraid of tigers, so I am not afraid of making mistakes. People used to say that I was very talented in language, in learning English or Cantonese. The result is that I could speak Cantonese with people in the street in three months. (Interview originally in Putonghua) Despite her willingness to continue working in Hong Kong, Lucy was required to return to mainland China when her rotation ended. With a keen interest and curiosity in the multicultural and multilingual world, she resigned from her job and actively pursued an MBA degree in Hong Kong. Her Cantonese proficiency further improved during this stage. (Shown by Stage 3 in Figure 1) After graduation, Lucy was offered an opportunity to work in Spain and was initially motivated to learn Spanish (L4). Notably, the institutional factors at the corporate level played an active role in L4 learning motivation, such as the Spanish-dominating working environment and free, supportive Spanish training courses. Additionally, her own successful prior L3 learning experience increased her motivation. (Shown by Stage 4 in Figure 1) The bank is an international company with many branches around the world. However, I was impressed by the Spanish-dominated working environment. Employees of core departments communicate in Spanish and some internal websites only have the Spanish version. Furthermore, most of the documents and emails were written in Spanish. Additionally, the company supports Spanish learning by providing Spanish courses one hour per week. They offered information about Spanish tests which Spanish learners could take after a period of study-ing… [In the beginning, I didn't worry too much because] I felt that I am a talented language learner due to my English and Cantonese learning experience. (Interview originally in Putonghua) However, after working in Spain for a while, Lucy found that she did not have much time to learn Spanish because of the heavy workload. At the institutional level, she worked as part of a global team. The team leader required English to be the only working language. As noticed, her meso working environment had a greater influence on her, and thus she devoted more effort to strengthening her English proficiency. Without the urgency and necessity for work, the motivation for her to learn Spanish declined sharply.
[In this bank] if employees want to have good and long-term career development, a good command of English is important. Spanish is not a big problem. If I received written documents in Spanish, I could turn to Google translate to help finish the work. But my English failed. My boss (team leader) is a master and very demanding. He gave me very strict training. He did not ask you to be fast but tolerated no mistakes. So, I supposed English is not a barrier, but it is. So, I had to improve my English. There was a process of strengthening my English, lasting three to six months. (Interview originally in Putonghua) At the individual level, obstacles in L4 learning occurred when Lucy found that she could not pronounce the core phoneme in Spanish. She also doubted the effects of Spanish training courses provided by the bank, based only on which employees were not capable of using Spanish as their working language.
No matter how hard I tried, I cannot pronounce the core uvular consonant [r] in Spanish. I was very frustrating, especially thinking of my former successful experience (of L2 and L3) and my own expectations, since I was always told that I had talent in language learning… For employees who attended the courses provided by the firm and learnt Spanish two hours per week for three years, it is still hard or even impossible for them to use it as working language. The training is not mandatory, and no one actually checks the process of employees' Spanish learning. Due to the heavy workload, I rarely went to the Spanish course with the time passing by. (Interview originally in Putonghua) More importantly, she viewed Spanish as a tool to facilitate her work, which could be largely fulfilled by using English. Moreover, she had neither long-term plan to stay in the headquarter nor strong ambition to be in a leading position. Furthermore, her strong sense of Chinese national identity and sense of belonging guided her to return to China when she had the chance. Therefore, the social cultural and institutional factors changed from multilingual to bilingual again. To sum up, Lucy had two periods of LOTE learning experience, one is Cantonese (L3) and the other is Spanish (L4). Individual factors such as her identity and language belief (Spanish as a tool) played a more important role since her own perception and interpretation of the context was significant in influencing her L3 motivation. Moreover, the institutional level factors were crucial in changing motivation, especially the team-level ones.

Jack's profile of Spanish (L3) learning
Jack was born in China and studied and lived in Britain for about ten years from high school to his PhD degree. Ten years of adaptation and integration in Britain made him believe that it was natural to study and use the local language. The institutional factors, for example Spanish colleagues and intense Spanish courses, further strengthened his L3 learning motivation. At the individual level, Jack held the belief that a good command of language is crucial to understand and integrate into a culture, gaining membership or identity. Moreover, the similarity between Spanish and English facilitated his L3 learning. (Shown by Stage 1 in Figure 2) I have many Spanish friends and we always hang out together. Compared with the learning process of a second foreign language, Spanish and English are somewhat similar, so it is relatively easy to transfer from English to Spain. (Interview originally in Putonghua) One year later, Jack went to Spain to continue his job. Notably, this internal rotation to a different social cultural environment was favourable to his L3 learning since he had more chances to use Spanish in daily work and life. Additionally, his job responsibility required him to use Spanish to communicate with his counterparts. That shaped his language belief that languages are resources and help to gain access to membership of a certain community. Therefore, during this year working in Spain, his L3 motivation increased sharply. (Shown by Stage 2 in Figure 2) I want to learn Spanish partly due to my job nature. If you are a front desk, then that's fine [if you don't speak Spanish], because you are meeting [global] customers, right? But if you are, for example, in a risk department, then it is more likely to communicate with the headquarters. Then speaking Spanish is a great advantage, right? If your job responsibility involves internal communication, it must be an advantage if you are multilingual. (Interview originally in Putonghua) When Jack moved to work in Shanghai, the language environment changed from multilingual to almost bilingual. He still had a strong and even increasing L3 motivation due to institutional and individual factors. At the institutional level, he had many opportunities communicating in Spanish, which served as a reinforcement of his L3 learning. (Shown by Stage 3 in Figure 2) I have many chances to use Spanish at workplace. It's hard to say that it's due to the job nature, or because I could speak Spanish myself, so some work requiring Spanish are likely to go to me. (Interview originally in Putonghua) In conclusion, Jack's L3 learning motivation experienced a generally rising trend and was enormously influenced by individual factors such as his language belief that languages are resources and his desire to integrate with certain language speaking group (his colleagues and friends) by obtaining target language.

Lewis's profile of Putonghua (L3) learning
Lewis, born in Spain, obtained his bachelor's degree in Spain and master's degree in Finland. Having worked in the international banking industry for about eleven years, he encountered several multilingual working environments. He used Spanish and English at workplace and held the belief that English is a 'must-have' skill and employees working for international companies have a 'perfect' command of English. This represents the typical perspective that English would serve as a lingua franca at multilingual workplace. I studied English four hours a week since I was five. And for six years I took extra English courses for three to four hours a week. Then I studied one year in Finland, and I did my [master's] thesis there. So [my English] improved a lot at that moment. Now English is more important than it was in the past and students have three times that number of hours than mine to learn it. I think in the future everyone in an international company must speak perfect English, not [just reasonably]. One, especially must be bilingual. (Interview originally in English) When Lewis transferred to Shanghai, the sociocultural and institutional factors, as well as local language training courses, boosted his motivation to learn Chinese. At the individual level, he held an open attitude towards unfamiliar countries and the according brand-new cultures, including languages. He also intended to use Chinese to fulfil his responsibility and facilitate his relationships with colleagues and business partners.
It's quite common that people moved from one country to the other in a global organisation. I'm taking this risk, moving my family overseas because I think this is a great opportunity for us to go to the Chinese market… I struggled a bit when I first came to China. It's not easy, to be honest. I would recommend anyone to come to China, but it's not easy. You need to know that the people are completely different, the way they act, the way they negotiate. Even some of the guys in Shanghai can speak English, but their accent, the way they express themselves is different. (Interview originally in English) More importantly, individual factors determined his own interpretation of changing context. Raised in a multilingual environment in Europe, he cultivated a positive attitude towards languages other than his mother tongue and would like to put a strenuous effort into L3 language learning. (Shown by Stage 1 in Figure 3) During the first one and a half years I studied a lot of Chinese. So, I used to wake up around six to study before coming to work and study after leaving the office in the evening… I could have as many Chinese classes I wanted, an unlimited number of classes for me. So, it's quite good. The company pays as much money as you need to learn that language. So, I studied a lot. (Interview originally in English) Because of the aforementioned reasons, the changing sociocultural environment, job requirements, favourable L3 learning policy, his language belief, openness towards new language environment, his motivation to learn Putonghua reached the peak during the first one and a half years in China. As a result, his command of Putonghua helped him communicate with people in daily life and understand the local culture.
After that, the changing of Lewis' job responsibility initiated a decline in his learning motivation. In addition, some individual factors also undermined his L3 learning incentives, such as heavy workload, lack of time, and difficulty in breaking through a bottleneck. More importantly, Lewis emphasised that the difficulties to use Putonghua as the working language deterred him from further learning. (Shown by Stage 2 in Figure 3) I quit [learning Putonghua] partly because I was moved to different responsibility within the company… After learning Chinese for one and a half years, I still cannot use Chinese in a business conversation. I reached the point that to improve further my Chinese I had to study a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. I didn't have that time. Additionally, I have a second kid and honestly not so much energy. So, I quit. (Interview originally in English) Since Lewis held the language belief that Putonghua was an indispensable tool to facilitate business understanding and negotiation at the workplace, his motivation decreased sharply when he found learning it as the working language was almost impossible for him with the limited time and energy. Later, his application for internal rotation to America was approved, which greatly influenced his perception of the current context he lived and worked in. This led to a further decrease in his motivation to learn Putonghua and reflects his belief in English as a 'must'. (Shown by Stage 3 in Figure 3) I just signed another offer within the bank to move to the US, so I'll be moving to the New York office in a month time or less… I could use English and Spanish to communicate well. Ninety percent of my interaction here in Shanghai is in English. And the rest ten percent with my counterpart [s] in headquarters, most of our conversations are Spanish. (Interview originally in English) To sum up, his L3 (Putonghua) learning motivation experienced a sharp increase when he first came to China for work and a steady decline later. His L3 learning motivation decreased dramatically due to institutional factors such as changing job responsibility and location. Notably, his language belief that Putonghua is a tool to facilitate business and the end of the need to use Putonghua as the working language also resulted in a sharp decrease in L3 motivation. This also reflects his notion that languages are tools that should facilitate individuals' work and life instead of making it harder.

Discussion
Three case study narratives address adult learners' vision of their LOTE learning experiences in their workplaces. The interplay between contextual factors and individual factors is illustrated by the learners' motivation trajectories. Accordingly, we argue that the active and positive interplay between all contextual factors and individual factors (shown by Table 3) effectively motivates LOTE learning. Furthermore, the relation of person-in-institutional context has more impact on language learning motivation than that of person-in-sociocultural context.
In general, the increasing or decreasing trends of the interviewees' motivation complies with the environmental change. This can be explained by the interplay between sociocultural factors and their language belief and past learning experience. All of them have rich L2 experience partly due to national foreign language policies, for example, learning English from young age in Spain and China. Their overseas education experiences, such as Lucy in Hong Kong, Jack in Britain and Lewis in Finland, also contributed to their L2 capabilities. Their strong L2 English further strengthened confidence in language learning capability and belief in language use, as all three broadly agreed that learning the local language would greatly facilitate communication and mutual understanding. Therefore, when they encountered a new language environment, their LOTE motivation increased sharply and was main-tained at a comparatively high level for a certain period of time. However, their motivation declined significantly when moving to relatively monolingual environment, for example Lucy's return to China and Lewis's anticipated move to America.
After the early stage of working in a new social cultural environment, however, the interplay between individual and social cultural factors gradually weakens and is difficult to sustain. For example, Jack's L3 Spanish learning motivation strengthened rather than declines when he works in China. We believe this is due to the more frequent and intense interplay between institutional and individual factors. At the institutional level, there is no explicit language policy in this Spanish bank, but all three interviewees had a strong belief in using English a business lingua franca and using LOTE as an advantage. They were also sensitive to institutional factors such as job rotation, language training courses and job responsibilities. In particular, Lucy works in a global team and uses English and Chinese in daily business communication. Therefore, she is generally demotivated by institutional factors despite the Spanishdominating living and working language environment in the headquarter.
Different language beliefs were formed because of the interviewees' experience and context. Following Gardner's integrativeness (2001), Jack believed that language is an essential link to integrate with certain language group and community. In this scenario, he attached more importance and psychological reward (e.g. efficient communication with target language group) to a good command of L3 despite the difficulties during the learning process. In contrast, Lucy and Lewis showed a clear tendency to perceive language as a tool to facilitate their daily work. Their L3 motivation was more likely to decline when they encountered obstacles during the language learning process and they resorted to using English as a substitute (Kubota, 2013).
In addition, regarding self-perception of identities, this research suggests for the inclusiveness of cultural identities which may decide L3 motivation, besides Zimmerman's discourse, situated and transportable identities (1998). Lucy, born and raised in China, reported a strong sense of national identity as a Chinese person. Even though she worked in Spain for around three years, she always believed that she would return to China sooner or later. Thus, she was not strongly motivated at the initial stage of confronting the Spanish culture and became sharply demotivated when she rotated back to China. On the other hand, Jack was motivated to learn Spanish because of his belief that language is crucial to understanding culture and interacting with his local friends. This is consistent with Ushioda (2011) and Yashima (2009) in that learners' identity strongly determines how they perceive themselves in context and the sense of belongings in the multilingual environment.

Conclusion
This study enriches current literature on LOTE motivation as a response to the person-in-context relational view at multilingual workplaces. Analysing three interviews at the focal research company, this research investigated learners' vision on their language learning experience. LOTE motivation trajectories are illustrated along with the dynamic interplay of contextual and individual factors at critical stages. In particular, we emphasise the significance of the interplay between factors at the institutional level and language belief and identities. Against the background of globalisation, this study suggests that language practitioners at MNCs attach importance to language climate at the corporate and department/team level to further foster employees' beliefs about languages as access to community membership, as media to facilitate the business relationship, and as resources. However, findings and discussion are based on a relatively small number of case study narratives. Future research can be conducted based on MNCs in different industries and various language learning environments and employees with learning experience in other languages to further explore the interplay of contextual and individual factors at multiple levels.