A Correlational Study On Motivational Regulation Strategies And English Achievement Of High School Students

Learning motivation is consistently being regarded as a crucial determinant offoreign language learning. As such, regulating the motivation of language learnershas a special importance in English learning. However, existing studies have beenmainly focused on the motivational regulation of college students in foreignlanguage teaching and learning. The limited studies on high school students’motivational regulation are also not comprehensive. This study attempts to explorethe motivational regulation of high school students in English language learning.The researcher has focused on the different types of motivational regulationstrategies that high school students use in English learning and the relationshipbetween these strategies and their English achievement.In order to explore the motivational regulation of high school students inEnglish learning, this study addresses the following five questions:(1) What typesof strategies do Chinese high school students use to regulate their motivation inEnglish learning?(2) What is the overall situation of the use of motivationalregulation strategies observed among high school students?(3) How does the use ofmotivational regulation strategies differ with regard to male and female students,arts and science students, and general and art students?(4) Is there any correlationbetween the use of motivational regulation strategies and English achievement inhigh school students?(5) Are there any differences in using motivational regulationstrategies between high and low score groups?This study used two research methods: a quantitative research method and aqualitative research method. Three hundred students from two different highschools in Xinxiang, Henan province, China completed the questionnaire. The data collected through the questionnaire was computed and analyzed with severalstatistical procedures using SPSS. The researcher interviewed six students who hadparticipated in the questionnaire; for the purpose of research, the researcher selectedthe three students with the highest scores on the mid-term exam and the threestudents with the lowest scores on the mid-term exam. The results of this studysuggest the following:High school students used ten types of strategies to regulate their motivationwhen encountering motivational problems in learning. These included task valueenhancement, volitional control, performance self-talk, mastery self-talk, interestenhancement, self-reward, negative-based incentive, metacognition, self-efficacy,and giving up. The frequency with which high school students used these ten typesof motivational regulation strategies reached a mid to high level. Aside from thestrategy of giving up, the mean scores of the female students in the use ofmotivational regulation strategies were all higher than the scores of the malestudents. The mean scores in motivational regulation strategies of arts students andscience students were very close and T-test results also showed that they did notexhibit significant differences in the use of motivational regulation strategies.General students and art students displayed significant differences in the use of thestrategies of volitional control and giving up but showed no significant difference inthe use of other strategies. Of the ten types of motivational regulation strategies, allexcept the strategy of giving up were positively correlated with Englishachievement. Significant differences in the use of motivational regulation strategieswere found between high and low grade groups. Except for the strategy of giving up,students with high grades used all strategies more frequently than those with lowgrades. The results of the qualitative study further confirmed the results of thequantitative research.