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Beginning with Gardner and Lambert’s initial foray into the study of second language (L2) motivation over 50 years ago, various theoretical approaches have been used to investigate this key aspect of language learning. However, although motivation is inherently unstable and iterative, researchers have primarily searched for static, linear relationships between learner characteristics and motivated behaviour. Consequently, there is a general consensus that the shifting reality of L2 motivation has yet to be adequately explained (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011). A research paradigm has been sought that can capture the fluctuating aspects of L2 motivation, and since the early 2000s, scholars have been increasingly interested in the possibilities of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST), a theoretical framework from the natural sciences that investigates how conditions and components interact within a system in unpredictable and constantly changing ways. However, CDST’s emphasis on whole system interconnectedness and nonlinear change poses significant challenges to conventional research methods, and the editors of Motivational Dynamics in Language Learning state that during the past ten years “scholars spent much more time talkin