Exploring English Majors' Meta-affective And Affective Strategic Self-Regulation In Productive Skills

Learning strategy is one of the main factors of individual differences in second and foreign language learning,which has a significant influence on learning outcome.Most of the previous researches were based on the traditional theoretical framework of learning strategy(Oxford,1990),aiming to analyze the linear relationship between learning strategies and their influencing factors with quantitative methods.However,neither can such cross-sectional researches reveal the variations among individual learners,nor can they perceive the diachronic characteristics of learning strategies.On the basis of Strategic Self-Regulation(shorten as S~2R)Model(Oxford,2017)and the relatedtenetsofdynamicsystemstheory,thestudyadoptsthe quantitative-qualitative-quantitative mixed research methods by combing questionnaire survey,retrodictive qualitative interview and dynamic trajectory graph,so as to explore the dynamic changes of six participants'meta-affective and affective strategic self-regulation in productive skills within one year.The research results show that:(1)participants'anxiety degrees in productive skills undergo different fluctuations within one year,which are influenced by such internal reasons as learning interests and external reasons as examination,learning environment,teaching styles etc.;(2)the strategic self-regulations adopted by participants to mitigate learning anxiety include meta-affective strategies like paying attention to,monitoring and evaluating for affect,as well as affective strategies like modulating emotional responses and deploying attention to control emotions;(3)participants'meta-affective and affective strategic self-regulation and their learning anxiety demonstrate a nonlinear interactive relationship.The research results have valuable implications both for future L2 individual differences research including learning strategy,and for research on foreign language teaching.The study of L2 individual differences is supposed to draw lessons from the previous linear paradigm,investigate related factors from a dynamic and diachronic perspective,and eventually try to achieve a perfect combination of the two research paradigms.Foreign language teachers are suggested to pay attention to learners'individual differences and the dynamic changes of their emotions,to conduct more strategy training and carry out differentiated teaching.