Relationship Between Senior High School Students’ Perceived Formative Assessment And Use Of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies In English Learning

Formative assessment(FA)is paid more and more attention to its function to assist students’ self-regulated learning.The National English Curriculum Standards(NECS)in China also highlight FA’s role in developing students’ SRL abilities and,ultimately,encouraging them to become lifelong learners.The assessment’s role in enhancing learning rather than grading is emphasized.The potential of formative assessment to promote learning is of great significance in theory and to English teaching in the Chinese EFL context practically.It is significant to help senior high school students improve their English through constant self-monitoring and adapting their learning strategies.On the one hand,as previous research pointed out,individuals’ self-regulating skills are primarily established in junior high and senior high school classrooms.Middle school students in China have a heavy academic load and intense learning pressure.Therefore,improving middle school students’self-regulated skills through formative assessments is helpful to make their learning more effective.On the other hand,in the Chinese EFL context,English is taught in large classes.Instructors cannot always provide students with individual timely feedback.Therefore,students should be responsible for constantly monitoring their learning process and occasionally adapting their learning strategies to their weaknesses.Empirically,few studies examined the relationship between comprehensive components of formative assessment practices and self-regulated learning strategies from the student’s perspective in the EFL context in senior high schools.Thus,this study is necessary.Based on the two-factor model of perceptions of FA and the framework of selfregulated learning strategies,this study aims to investigate the current state of senior high school students’ perceived Formative Assessment and their use of self-regulated learning strategies.Also,this study investigates the relationship between their perceived FA and use of self-regulated learning strategies.With the questionnaires and interviews,this study collects quantitative and qualitative data from 478 Grade 12 students(16 to 18-year-olds)from one Jiangsu senior high school.The results are presented as follows.Firstly,most participants report they have experienced a moderately high level of FA practice.They have perceived much monitoring and scaffolding.Furthermore,senior high school students have experienced more scaffolding than monitoring.Secondly,the overall mean of use of SRLS is of moderate level.In terms of the motivational aspect,senior high school students are more likely to be driven to study by external motivation than by internal motivation.In addition,students have moderate high levels of self-confidence and employ emotion regulation skills to control negative feelings such as test anxiety and despair.As for the learning strategies aspect,cognitive and metacognitive strategies are more commonly used among senior high school students than cooperative learning strategies.Thirdly,senior high school students’ perceived FA are positively and moderately related to their use of self-regulated learning strategies(r=0.658,p<0.01).In addition,the multiple linear regression reveals that the two independent factors of FA can predict,to some extent,the use of self-regulated learning strategies.The R square value is 0.434,which suggests that the model explains 43.4%of the variance in the use of self-regulated learning strategies by senior high school students.The implications can be concluded that teachers should gradually implement enhanced FA by strengthening critical formative assessment practices to monitor and scaffold students’ learning processes in order to strengthen SRL abilities.For students,it’s critical to improve their self-monitoring and self-assessment skills with teachers’ instructions.