A Survey Into Motivational Factors In Self-Regulated Learning For English Majors At A Vocational College

Self-regulated learning is crucial to lifelong independent learning. Learning is facilitated when the process is initiated and owned by the learner (Taylor, 1999, Cited by Nongkran, W. et. al. 2002:1). The learners have to become more independent, responsible and effective for their own learning (Codde, 1996; Long, 2001, Cited by Nongkran, W. et. al. 2002:1). Zeegers, Martin & Martin (1999) note that a principal goal of higher education is to foster individuals who are capable independent learner (Cited by Nongkran, W. et. al. 2002:1). This is the goal of higher education in many countries including China. In addition, self-regulated learning is particular appropriate for college students, as they have great control over their own time schedule (Pintrich, 1995, cited by Catherine, Chen, 2002:13). Depending on English classes at college to acquire the language knowledge and command the language skill is not enough. Students must learn how to access to more language input after class. To meet the challenge in the future job market, the students at vocational colleges especially need to develop self-regulated ability to keep on learning. Therefore, it is necessary for the students at vocational colleges to take responsibility for their own learning and develop the ability of autonomous learning.Self-regulated learning is the process that learners actively participate in the motivational, metacognitive and behavioral process. Motivation plays a very crucial role. Pintrich says, you need the "skill" as well as the "will". "Will" refers to motivation. Without motivation to self-regulate themselves, learners cannot improve their learning outcome. Self-efficacy, self-attribution for success or failure and goal orientation are learners' motivational beliefs about their learning. These personal and psychological factors play big roles in their learning performance.This study was based on the framework of self-regulated learning theory, examined the correlation between the learners' self-regulated learning performance or ability and their motivational factors such as motivation, self-efficacy, attribution and goal orientation, the roles they play in the self-regulated learning and the characteristics that the motivational factors reflected on English majors in their self-regulated learning at Lanzhou Petrochemical Vocational College. The data were collected through survey questionnaire with 5-point Likert scale and computerized by SPSS. Correlational and descriptive statistics were used as the basis on which to produce the research questions. After survey, an interview with some English majors was taken place to know about the factors that affect their motivational factors and self-regulated learning. This study was carried out to investigate the following questions: 1. Is there any correlation between learners' motivational factors and self-regulated learning performance?2. What kind of situation is English majors' self-regulated learning in ?3. What are the reasons affecting learners' motivational factors for their self-regulated learning?The thesis consists of five chapters:In Chapter 1, the purpose and significance of the present study were expressed, and at the same time the research questions were put forward.Chapter 2 defines self-regulated learning and keeps it distinct among all the definitions. The elements of self-regulated learning are defined and analyzed. It also introduces Zimmerman's framework of self-regulated learning theory, the theoretical basis of this study. Researches on motivational construct in self-regulated learning in educational psychology field and the second language and foreign language acquisition field in China and abroad in recent years are reviewed.Chapter3 reports a qualitative and quantitative research on motivational factors in self-regulated learning for English majors at Lanzhou Petrochemical Vocational College. A questionnaire and an interview were conducted in May 2005. About 180 subjects from English department participated in this survey. The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part includes the motivational factors in self-regulated learning: motivation, self-efficacy, goal orientation and attribution. The second part is about learners' self-regulated strategy use. Students were also required to write down their scores of Practical English Test for Colleges Level A and report their time spent in their English learning after class everyday. Student' learning performances are measured by their self-regulated learning strategy use and how much time they use in their after-class English learning. After the survey, the author conducted an interview to some English majors at Lanzhou Petrochemical Vocational College. An interview outline is designed according to some most-concerned problems related to this study. The interview was not included into data processing and statistics in this research, but was considered into the factors analysis about learners' self-regulated learning.Chapter 4 reports the results of this research and analysis of the research results. Through displaying â–  the percentages, means and standard deviation of motivation, self-efficacy, attribution belief, goal orientation, students' self-regulated learning strategy use and time use in after-class English learning, the difference and characteristics of high scorers and low scorers of their motivational beliefs and their self-regulated learning performance have been exposed and analyzed. The results of this study indicate that intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, mastery goal orientation, performance goal orientation and internal easy-controlled attribution are significantly and positively correlated with self-regulated learningperformance. Extrinsic motivation, internal difficult-controlled attribution and external attribution negatively correlate with self-regulated learning performance. The negative correlation between extrinsic motivation of English majors and their self-regulated learning performance is not significant. English majors' internal difficult-controlled attribution and external attribution very significantly and negatively correlate with self-regulated learning performance. Moreover, the English majors at Lanzhou Petrochemical Vocational College are lack of self-regulated ability in their English learning. The motivational factors of English majors in SRL at Lanzhou Petrochemical Vocational College have their own characteristics. Many low scorers have high instrumental motivation and high mastery goal orientation, but they are low self-efficacious. The higher instrumental or extrinsic motivation English majors have, the lower self-efficacious they become. Most English majors are too dependent on teachers and put more emphasis on external difficult-controlled factors and don't take their responsibilities for their own learning due to lack of management and responsibility in their learning. Therefore, they scarcely use self-regulated learning strategies to manage their time, set a specific learning plan, monitor their learning process, evaluate their learning process and result and reflect their learning result.Chapter 5 draws a conclusion to the significance of the present study, gets some implications from this study for future teaching to develop students' motivation and self-regulated ability, points out its limitations, and puts forward some suggestions for future researches.