Effects of Intervention on Self-Regulated Learning for Second Language Learners
AbstractThe study investigated the effects of an intervention program on self-regulated learning designed for second language learners. One hundred and twenty participants who were sophomore English majors at a university in China were randomly assigned to either the treatment or the control group. The intervention was composed of six weekly two-hour training sessions that focus on five main variables of self-regulatory processes: goal setting, self-efficacy, time and study environment management, language learning strategies, and attribution. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention included multiple outcome variables, which were grouped into three categories: students’ motivational beliefs, students’ strategy use, and students’ academic performance. The results of the immediate training effects on goal setting, self-efficacy, attribution, time and study environment management, memory strategy, compensation strategy, metacognitive strategy and second language proficiency confirmed that academic self-regulation is a trainable student characteristic and self-regulation training can be used effectively in a second language classroom setting. The feature of the current study design allows for systematically examining and evaluating both motivational variables and learning strategies in the context of second language learning.