A Correlational Study Of Motivational Regulation Strategies And Language Learning Strategies

Although motivational regulation has been regarded as an important aspect ofself-regulated learning and is thought to have an impact on academic learning andachievement, it is still a relatively little investigated aspect of self-regulated learning Therehas been little research so far that has been devoted to examining how motivational regulationbears on foreign language learning. We know little about whether and how foreign languagelearners regulate their motivation, to say nothing of the role of motivational regulation inforeign language learning. Therefore the current study tends to research on the motivationalregulation of non-English majors, including the motivational regulation strategies the studentsused as well as the relationship between motivational regulation strategies and languagelearning strategies.This study is designed to address the following questions:(1) What are the overall patterns of motivational regulation strategies used by thestudents of medical majors in college?(2)What are the differences in using motivational regulation strategies in terms of thestudents’ gender, grade and major?(3)Are there any relations between language learning strategies and motivationalregulation strategies?The current study mainly takes questionnaire survey. The subjects are220students ofHebei Medical University. They are in grade1and2. Their majors are Chinese traditionalmedicine and Western Medicine as well as Clinical Medicine. Then the author use SPSS toanalyze the data collected, including descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-test andcorrelational analysis.The results of analysis show that almost every student uses many kinds of motivationalregulation strategies. And female students use motivational regulation strategies with higherfrequency than did by male students. And there are no obvious differences between studentsin grade1and students in grade2as well as students from different majors. The results alsoshow the strong correlation between motivational regulation strategies and language learningstrategies. Although there are limitations to the study, the findings of the present study haveimportant theoretical and practical implications. The present study has made an initial attemptto explore the motivational regulation of foreign language learners. It provides more insightinto the nature and effectiveness of motivational regulation in academic learning, makes animportant contribution to foreign language learning research by introducing motivationalregulation into second language acquisition, and sheds some light on the understanding of theindividual differences in foreign language learning. The findings also suggest that foreignlanguage teachers should help students self-regulate their motivation to promote languagelearning. Meanwhile, language teachers and educators should take an integrative view oflearner training to help students become truly self-regulated learners. Learner training shouldinvolve not only language learning strategy training but also the training to foster adaptivegoal orientations, to nurture self-efficacy in students’ learning process, and to help studentsself-regulate their motivation.