Use of motivational regulation strategies and its relations to motivational beliefs in a college English course context

Abstract

While motivational regulation strategies (MRSs) both as a core facet of self-regulated learning and as a pedagogical issue have attracted increasing attention from researchers and practitioners, what motivational regulation strategies learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) or English as a second language (ESL) tend to use and how these strategies may be associated with learner motivational beliefs in English learning remain under-researched. To fill this research gap, this study aims to contribute to a holistic understanding of Chinese EFL students’ use of MRSs and its relations to English learning motivational beliefs. Data were collected from 638 non-English major undergraduate students through two self-report questionnaires in a College English Course context. Results showed that students reported high frequency use of performance-enhancement or interest-related strategies while reporting using other types of regulation strategies (e.g. performance-avoidance self-talk) to a lesser extent. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses suggested that among the four types of motivational beliefs investigated in this study, control of learning beliefs, intrinsic goal orientation, and extrinsic goal orientation were the top three most powerful predictors of the students’ use of MRSs in English learning. Pedagogical implications and directions for future research were also discussed.