Self-Regulation in Language Learning

Abstract

Self-regulated learning has been a widely researched subject for decades in educational psychology. Different instruments have been developed to understand learners' self-regulated learning in a specific subject domain. This study developed a measurement scale to assess English-as-a-foreign-language learners' self-regulatory capacity in English language learning and further examined the effects of gender on English-as-a-foreign-language learners' self-regulatory capacity. A series of psychometric analyses including exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and full structural equation modeling were undertaken to answer the research questions raised. The findings suggest that the scale can attain high reliability and strong validity in two different samplings, and the underlying construct of self-regulation in English language learning is shown to be multidimensional with a significant impact by gender. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are further put forward in light of the research findings.

The Relationship between English Language Learner Characteristics and Online Self-regulation: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

“…Similar analyses also apply when explaining its (communication apprehension) negative prediction on environment structuring, task strategies, help seeking, time management and self-evaluation. The general reason for this is that an increase in communication apprehension will greatly undermine personal willingness to deploy diverse cognitive strategies [24]. Students may find it difficult to build up their instructional setting in an online English class, and easily lose their momentum for English learning because they find it difficult to follow teachers' instructions.…”

“…From one phase to the next, self-reflection is necessary because it links advanced learners' metacognitive knowledge (what learners know) and self-regulation (what they do and how they prepare for learning). This suggests that reflection is not a fourth phase, separate from other phases in SRL cycle, but automatically happens throughout the SRL process [23,24]. In the field of educational psychology, self-regulation in foreign language learning means a self-directive process that language learners adopt to trigger and preserve their cognition, emotions and behaviors so as to attain their specific FL learning goals.…”

“…Such a self-directive process includes the transformation from the mental abilities of learners to their language learning related skills, which deals with numerous micro-processes that interrelate with each other. Tseng et al [24] put forward a five-dimensional model to explain English language learners' self-regulatory strategies. Based on previous studies framed in SRL, Tseng et al [24] further proposed that English learners' self-regulation covered commitment control, metacognitive knowledge control, satisfaction control, thoughts and emotions control, and social environment control.…”

Autorregulación del aprendizaje en la Formación Profesional a Distancia: efectos de la gestión del tiempo

“…La manera en la que los estudiantes autorregulan su aprendizaje es objeto de estudio por múltiples investigadores (Panadero (2017), Parra, Cerda, López-Vargas & Saiz (2014), Pintrich, 1995;Winne (2016)). Diferentes estudios muestran que tanto mujeres como hombres presentan diferencias individuales cuando deciden participar de forma activa en su propio proceso de aprendizaje (Basol & Balgalmis, 2016;Bidjerano, 2005;Tseng, Liu, & Nix, 2017).…”

Unidimensionality and construct validity of the Self-Regulating Capacity in Vocabulary Learning (SRCvoc) in Iranian EFL context: item-level responses versus item parcels

“…Following Tseng, Liu, and Nix (2017), CFA was run to investigate the goodness-of-fit of the three-factor model based on the factorial structure obtained from the preceding EFA (Figure 1). The maximum likelihood method was adopted to estimate the parameters involved in the three-factor model.…”