A Survey Study On The Use Of Motivational Regulation Strategies In English Reading By Senior Two Students

English reading,which is regarded as core competence of English in foreign language learning for senior high school students,is often influenced by many factors,such as age,learning style,environment,motivation and so on.Among these factors,motivation definitely plays an indispensable part in students’ language learning process.However,motivation is not fixed in the same level,but a dynamic and unstable level when learners learn a foreign language.In this way,motivational regulation strategies must be adopted in order to improve students’ English reading proficiency.However,few researches have focused on this field in China,especially when participants are Senior Two students in three-star senior high schools.In order to fill up the gap of this research field,this study is undertaken to investigate the status quo of motivational regulation strategies in English reading with the research subjects of Senior Two students in a three-star senior high school in Dongtai,Yancheng.The purpose of this study is to explore the general pattern of motivational regulation strategies in English reading,compare the differences between different genders and different English proficiency levels of Seaior Two students and examine the relationship between Senior Two students’ use of motivational regulation strategies in English reading and reading performance through the questionnaire and interview.The research questions addressed in this thesis are:(1)What is the general situation of Senior Two students’ use of motivational regulation strategies in English reading?(2)What are the differences between male and female Senior Two students’ use of motivational regulation strategies in English reading?(3)What are the differences between high achievers and low achievers of Senior Two students’ use of motivational regulation strategies in English reading?(4)Are there any relationship between Senior Two students’ use of motivational regulation strategies in English reading and reading performance of high school students?If any,what are the correlations?In this study,the author adopts both quantitative and qualitative methods in this study.The quantitative study applies a questionnaire of motivational regulation strategies in English reading based on 359 subjects of all the Senior Two Students in a three-star senior high school.The questionnaire is modified according to the questionnaire of Teng&Zhang(2016a).The final questionnaire of motivational regulation strategies in English reading is classified into five dimensions:Interest Enhancement,Performance Self Talk,Mastery Self-Talk,Environmental Structuring and Emotional Control with 17 items.Then,SPSS 18.0 is employed to analyze the data from the questionnaire.As for the qualitative methods,12 students are purposefully chosen from all the subjects who have taken part in the quantitative study.Among them,six are from high achievers and the rest are from low achievers.Thus,it is likely that the data gathered from these 12 students can stand for views of Senior Two students in the three-star senior high school.After making the conversations with these respondents,all the recording of interviews are transcribed into English and computed immediately.Both quantitative and qualitative methods in this study are analyzed in detail,thus yielding the major findings as follows:To begin with,descriptive analysis reveals that Senior Two students report a relatively moderate level of motivational regulation strategies in English reading for the fact that mean values of five broad categories range from 2.72 to 3.22.In addition,within the five broad motivational regulation strategies in English reading,Emotional Control is the most-frequently adopted motivational regulation strategy in English reading,followed by the strategies of Mastery Self-Talk,Environmental Structuring and Performance Self-Talk,The mean score of Interest Enhancement is the least frequently-adopted motivational regulation strategy in English reading,indicating the least preferred among Senior Two students in the three-star senior high school.Secondly,there do exist some differences between female students and male ones in Senior Two students’ use of motivational regulation strategies in English reading for the p value of these five dimensions all lower than.05.In general,female students get a higher mean value than male students in all five categories of motivational regulation strategies in English reading.When it comes to all specific items,significant differences also appear in the 12 items of motivational regulation strategies between female students and male ones.Thirdly,high achievers and low achievers have significant differences with each other in all five dimensions of Senior Two students’ motivational regulation strategies in English reading,with high achievers getting higher mean scores in these strategies than low achievers.As for specific motivational regulation strategies in English reading,all specific items show significant and remarkable differences between high achievers and low achievers except ES1 3 "I try to study at a place where I can be more focused on English reading ".Fourthly,motivational regulation strategies in English reading are positively correlated with academic performance in English reading at the.01 level.Interest Enhancement is highly correlated with English reading performance of Senior Two students.Performance Self-Talk is the highest correlated with English reading performance.As for Mastery Self-Talk,the relationship between motivational regulation strategies in English reading and academic achievement correlate each other positively at.01 level.In addition,Senior Two students’ use of Environmental Structuring in English reading and academic achievement are significantly correlated with each other.As for Emotional Control,there also exists a strong relationship between the use of strategies and English reading achievement at the.01 level.On the basis of findings mentioned,some pedagogical implications are given not only for teachers but also for students.For teachers,they should cultivate students’ awareness of using motivational regulation strategies in English reading,guide students to adopt different motivational regulation strategies in English reading according to unique features of different their own and give constant encouragements to low achievers in English reading.For students,more attention should be paid to raising their awareness in extensive use of motivational regulation strategies in English reading.