An Analysis Of Students' Use Of Self-regulated Learning During The Preparation For TEM-4

How to help students be autonomous learners and achieve academic success has been a long-standing issue for university instructors and administrators.There is evidence that self-regulation sustains a close and positive relation with students' academic achievements from social cognitive perspective.While self-regulation in general learning context(e.g.vocabulary learning,reading,writing)is frequently reported to predict academic performance and differentiate high-achievers from low-achievers,it remains much unknown about self-regulation in test preparation context,especially where taking high-stakes test can be a major task of student learning.This study will provide relative information for instructors in choosing proper interventions to improving students learning and get ideal academic results by a deeper understanding of students' self-regulatory learning process.The present study investigated students' use of self-regulated learning(SRL)in test preparation for TEM-4,a national test for English majors in Chinese universities.863 English majors were invited to this study by taking semi-structured interviews and questionnaires.One aim of the study is to investigate the characteristics of Chinese EFL learners' self-regulation strategies and their prospective relations with task value,self-efficacy.And the other is to explore the role of SRL strategies,task value,and self-efficacy in predicting TEM-4 scores and in differentiating high-achievers from low-achievers.Three major findings were reached in this study.Firstly,Chinese EFL learners reported a medium level use of SRL strategies during test preparation.And they tended to frequently use self-evaluation,seeking information and keeping records and monitoring,while they were less likely to use environmental structuring,seeking social assistance and rehearsing and memorizing.And high task value and low self-efficacy were reported in this study.Secondly,self-efficacy and task value could highly predict TEM-4 scores among the mentioned components of self-regulation in this study.Thirdly,high-achievers reported lower task value,and higher self-efficacy than low-achievers.The findings revealed the role of SRL strategies and motivational beliefs play in Chinese EFL students' learning process while preparing for TEM-4,and their influence on test performance.Instructors were suggested to “diagnose” the strong and weak parts of students' learning process and give proper mediation by enhancing their self-efficacy,holding proper task value,providing more assistance to improve the effectiveness of their learning for important tests.