Examining Chinese EFL Postgraduates’ Motivational Regulation Strategies

Abstract

This study set out to explore non-English major postgraduates’ use of motivational regulation strategies in English learning. Subjects for this study were 156 Chinese postgraduates studying in a national teacher education university in central China. A self-reported questionnaire and individual semi-structured interviews were complementarily employed to gather data. The non-English major postgraduates were found to have adopted ten types of strategy to regulate their motivation for learning English, but that these strategies were used infrequently. It was also found that despite the general absence of significant difference, the few that could be ascertained were associated with gender, specialty, and grade. The results suggest a need to provide motivation regulation strategies training, and nurture students’ intrinsic English learning motivation through curricular, instructional and assessment reforms.

Keywords

Chinese non-English major postgraduates / English as a foreign language (EFL) / motivational regulation strategies / learner differences

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