| Motivation is consistently being regarded as a crucial determinant of SLA. Given the dynamic nature of motivation, learners who are able to regulate their motivation are bound to be at a considerable advantage. However, researches concerning motivation regulation are limited and are mainly done by those interested in SRL with regards to general academic learning. Motivational regulation in foreign language learning is still an intriguing new area. Considering the special importance of motivational regulation in foreign language learning and the fact that most of the previous studies put their focus on the college students who are at a relatively old age, the present study is designed to investigate younger learners'use of motivational regulation strategies in English learning by taking the subjects of junior middle school students in Urumqi city.The present study consists of a quantitative survey and qualitative interview. The quantitative survey is used to collect data on student's use of motivational regulation strategies, while the interview is intended to serve as the supplement and validation of the quantitative study. 552 junior middle school students (with junior one 192, junior two 176, junior three 184) from three schools of Urumqi participated in the questionnaire survey, of which 36 students were again invited to participate in the qualitative interview. The present study has yielded the following results:1) The frequency of using those strategies fell within the range of medium to high. The frequency for the overall strategy use is high. Six strategies reach the level of high frequency: task value enhancement, self-efficacy enhancement, negative-based incentive, mastery self-talk, and performance self-talk, volitional control. Two strategies reach the level of medium: interest enhancement, self-reward. The rank of using the eight types'of motivational regulation strategies by their overall frequencies is as follows: task value enhancement, self-efficacy enhancement, negative-based incentive, mastery self-talk, performance self-talk, volitional control, interest enhancement, self-reward.2) There is a difference in the use of these strategies in terms of the students'grade and gender. Female students'use of these strategies is higher than their male counterparts, female junior middle school students differ significantly in the use of task value enhancement, negative-based incentive, mastery self-talk, performance self-talk, volitional control and interest enhancement. The difference in the use of self-reward and self-efficacy enhancement is not significant. There is a declining trend of using these strategies as the students'grade goes up.3) The present study reveals that the use of motivational strategies is linked to specific motivational problems. When the environments around the students distract their English learning, task value enhancement and volitional control are adopted; when the students are not in the right mood or positive emotions to study, task value enhancement, volitional control and self-efficacy enhancement are used; when some tasks in English learning are difficult for them or they have too much homework to do, task value-enhancement, performance self-talk, self-reward, negative-based incentive and self-efficacy enhancement are adopted; when some tasks of learning are dull, task value-enhancement, performance self-talk, mastery self-talk and interest enhancement and are used.4) The use of motivational regulation strategies has a great impact on the students'English learning achievement. Specifically, six strategies (self-efficacy enhancement, volitional control, interest enhancement, task value enhancement, performance self-talk and mastery self-talk) are correlated positively and significantly with the students'English learning achievement. Seven strategies (self-efficacy enhancement, volitional control, interest enhancement, negative-based incentive, task value enhancement, performance self-talk, and mastery self-talk) together can explain for about 19.6% of the students'score variances in English learning. Four strategies (performance self-talk, task value enhancement, interest enhancement and volitional control) can be the significant predictor of the students'English learning achievement. |
