A Study On The Developmental Features Of Motivational Regulation Strategies Of Junior High School Students In EFL Reading

In EFL learning,reading is an indispensable channel for learners to obtain language input,and motivation is regarded as an essential individual factor that affects reading performance.Nevertheless,motivation is not static but dynamic.It often fluctuates under the influence of the external environment,the difficulty of tasks,and other factors,which requires learners to employ diverse strategies actively to regulate their motivation to achieve a better learning effect.The level of using motivational regulation strategies(MRS)is considered as a critical manifestation of learners' autonomous learning ability.Accordingly,this study aims to investigate the differences and developmental features of the use of MRS in the EFL reading context among junior high school students of different grades.The research questions are as follows:(1)Are there grade differences in the level of using motivational regulation strategies of junior high school students in EFL reading? If so,what are the differences?(2)What is the correlation between the level of using motivational regulation strategies and EFL reading performance? Are there grade differences in the correlation?(3)How do motivational regulation strategies affect EFL reading performance in different grades of junior high school?In order to explore the research questions above,203 junior high school students are randomly selected as the research subjects,and their EFL reading performance is tested by an English reading test paper,their level of using MRS and metacognitive awareness of reading strategies(MARS)in EFL reading are investigated by two questionnaires respectively in class.All the data collected are analyzed by SPSS 25.0,including one-way ANOVA,correlation analysis,regression analysis,and mediation effect analysis,and the following results were obtained:(1)There are grade differences in the level of using MRS of junior high school students in EFL reading.From seventh to ninth grade,the level of using MRS in EFL reading demonstrates the developmental features of rising first and then falling.(2)There is a significant positive correlation between the overall level of using MRS and reading performance in EFL reading.Moreover,there are grade differences in the correlation: For seventh-grade students,both the overall level of using MRS and the level of using each strategy have no significant correlation with their reading performance.For eighth-grade and ninth-grade students,there is a significant positive correlation between the overall level of using MRS and reading performance;however,there are differences in the correlation between six dimensions of MRS and reading performance: Interest Enhancement,Goal-oriented Self-talk,Metacognitive Control,and Efficacy Improvement are significantly correlated with reading performance,while Self-reward and Give-up are not significantly correlated with reading performance.(3)There are grade differences in the pathway that MRS affect EFL reading performance.Firstly,for seventh-grade students,the level of using MRS is not significant in explaining their reading performance.Secondly,for eighth-grade students,the level of using MRS neither directly nor indirectly affects the reading performance via MARS.Lastly,for ninth-grade students,the level of using MRS does not directly affect the reading performance but indirectly affects the reading performance via MARS.Based on the findings above,this study discusses the causes of the phenomena and puts forward some suggestions for teaching and learning of EFL reading.