ABSTRACT
In this section, I will present a summary of my current views on authenticity and trace their development. I will, in doing so, draw on my own previous research and also that which has gone before, looking at the most important work from the research literature at this point. I will discuss motivation as a complex dynamic system and explain how teacher-student motivational synergy emerged as the most salient feature of my exploration into authenticity. This chapter will first introduce the complexity paradigm and then discuss my identity as a developing language teacher. Then I will outline my views on authenticity and the authenticity continuum, narrating how they emerged and took on a larger meaning as a result of this inquiry. I will also discuss motivation and the interdependence of autonomy and authenticity in conceptualising the construct, proposing that these three form a triadic relationship, which I name the Language Impetus Triad. Finally, I will explain how I attempted to look for synergy by explaining briefly about indicators of synergy, which are the main justifiers behind the observations I present in the narrative of Chapters 4 and 5.
