65
CHAPTER FIVE DISCUSSION
This chapter aims to answer the research questions raised in the introduction chapter and to provide a comprehensive discussion on the findings derived from the data analysis. An overview of the study is presented first, followed by discussions on the development of the SRClang scale and the causal-effect relationships among gender, grade-level, motivational strength, self-perceived language proficiency, and self-regulatory capacity in English language learning.
5.1 Overview of the Study
The current study attempts to develop an adequate measurement scale for self-regulatory capacity in English language learning, and to investigate the causal-effect relationships among some of the most critical aspects of second language acquisition along with self-regulation. The study sets the first step to empirically construct a valid measurement scale for detecting second language learners’ self-regulatory capacity and multi-facetedly explore the role of self- regulatory capacity in an EFL context. The results of the data analysis are expected to confirm the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1: A valid scale for measuring self-regulatory capacity in English language learning is expected to be developed based on the existing structure of the SRCvoc scale.
Hypothesis 2: Learners who have higher level of self-regulatory capacity perceive themselves to do better in English learning compared with learners with lower level of self-regulatory capacity.
Hypothesis 3: Female learners with higher E-V motivation perceive themselves to do better in English learning than male learners perceive themselves. The
66
phenomenon is consistent but declines over grade levels.
Hypothesis 4: Female learners with higher E-V motivation have higher level of self-regulatory capacity in English learning than male learners. The phenomenon is consistent but declines over grade levels.
5.2 The Measurement Scale of Self-Regulatory Capacity in Language Learning (SRClang)
Research Question 1: With proper modification of the SRCvoc scale, can a valid measurement be developed to explore learners’ self-regulatory capacity in language learning?
Tseng, Dörnyei, and Schmitt presented a solid measurement scale of self-regulatory capacity in vocabulary learning (SRCvoc) in 2006, and claimed that the instrument can not only serve as a self-report measurement tool to assess learners’
self-regulatory capacity in a specific learning domain, but also be extended on the basis of its underlying theory to further investigate self-regulatory capacity in other learning domains. Based on the validity and reliability of the SRCvoc scale, the current study modified the questionnaire and compiled an item pool whose descriptors conformed to the five facets of self-regulation suggested by Dörnyei (2001):
commitment control, metacognitive control, satiation control, emotion control, and environment control, and devised a measurement tool for assessing learners’
self-regulatory capacity in language learning (SRClang).
The results of both the pilot study and the formal study of the SRClang scale indicated that the revised form of Tseng et al.’s self-regulatory capacity assessment tool can be applied in the domain of language learning. Via the operation of Factor Analysis, it was found that one factor explained the majority of learners’
self-regulatory capacity in language learning, and factor loadings in the minor factors
67
were comparatively insignificant. The finding, however, contradicted with the concept proposed in the SRCvoc scale that five subscales--- commitment control, metacognitive control, satiation control, emotion control, and environment control--- underlie the construct of self-regulation. The factor loadings of the SRClang scale showed that the construct of self-regulation only answered to one psychometric trait, which is to say, the underlying trait of self-regulation in English language learning is unidimensional.
As reviewed in Chapter Two, many researchers have defined volition as part of a larger self-regulatory system (Corno, 1993; Pintrich, 1999; Snow, 1989, Pintrich &
Schunk, 2002). In the discussion of volitional theory, Kuhl and Kazen-Saad (1989) implied that the terms volition and self-regulation are analogous:
Volition (or self-regulation) is… defined as a mechanism that supports the maintenance of information related to the current intention and resolves conflicts between cognitive and motivational preference hierarchies. This maintenance function protects the current intention (i.e., a cognitive preference) against competing action tendencies supported by tempting emotional preferences (p. 387).
Wolters (2003) also observed that self-regulation and volition share various common grounds. First, both self-regulation and volition help learners manage disruptions in goal-directed behaviors. Furthermore, the characteristics of self-regulation and volition both emphasize on the learners’ self-controlled use of learning strategies to attain the goal. The psychometric trait of volition appeared to coincide with the core concept of self-regulation, and as suggested by previous researchers, the terms volition and self-regulation are often used interchangeably or as synonyms for one another. The SRClang scale developed in the current study revealed that one single psychometric trait conformed to learners’ self-regulatory capacity in
68
language learning; because of the inseparability and high relevance between self-regulation and volition, the psychometric trait found as the mediator of learners’
self-regulated learning is hereby defined as volition.
The development of the SRClang scale is significant in the way that it can be used to diagnose learners’ strength of volition in language learning, and the result can help educators or even learners themselves to understand to what extent the learners master their own learning process in order to set necessary remedies where needs be.
5.3 The Predictability of Self-Regulation in Self-Perceived Language Proficiency Research Question 2: What is the effect of learners’ self- regulatory capacity in
language learning on their self-perceived English language achievement?
The second research question aims to explore the predictability of self-regulatory capacity in self-perceived language proficiency. The descriptive analysis showed that the majority of the participants in the current study perceived their English proficiency as either ‘Not very good ’ (n=197) or ‘Not bad’ (n=195).
Some learners perceived themselves to do poorly in English (n=113) and only very few learners perceived themselves to do well (n=8). Pintrich and Schunk (2002) suggested that older learners are more likely to distribute their responses across the continuum of the scale compared with children. However, due to the fact that the participants’ real achievement scores were unattainable in the current study, it is unclear whether the participants’ self-perceptions of English proficiency reflect their true achievement.
Nonetheless, the multiple regression result suggested that self-regulation acts as a positive predictor in self-perceived language proficiency (β= .54); that is, learners with higher strength of volitional control perceive themselves to have better
69
performance in language learning than learners with lower strength of volitional control.
Several researchers have investigated the relationship between self-perceived achievement and cognitive engagement (Pintrich, 1989, 1999; Pintrich & De Groot, 1990; Pintrich & Garcia, 1991, 1993; Pintrich & Schrauben, 1992; Wolters, Yu, &
Pintrich, 1996; Paris & Oka, 1986; Shell, Murphy, & Bruning, 1989) and found that there existed high correlation between learners’ level of self-perceived achievement and self-regulatory strategies use. Learners who perceived themselves to perform better on the learning task reported to adopt more self-regulatory learning strategies compared to learners who perceived themselves to have lower achievement, which is consistent with the finding of the current study.
The fact that self-regulatory capacity can positively predict self-perceived proficiency in English learning is significant in the aspect that teachers can adopt the self-report measurement of SRClang to acquire a clearer insight into learners’
self-perceptions of ability. Research has shown that self-perceptions of ability serve as a strong predictor of learners’ subsequent grades (Eccles, 1983; Wigfield, 1994;
Wigfield & Eccles, 1992). By fostering learners’ volitional control during the learning process, learners will cultivate higher perceptions of their academic ability, and eventually attain desired learning outcomes. Pintrich and Schunk (2002) proposed that teachers should ‘activate personal interest through opportunities for choice and control’ (p. 89) to aid learners in gaining higher perceptions of themselves in an academic task.
5.4 Causal-Effect Studies of Self-Regulation in English Learning
Besides developing a valid measurement scale of learners’ self-regulatory capacity in English language learning, a second main purpose of the current study is
70
to investigate upon the causal-effect relationships of various crucial elements in second language acquisition, including gender, grade-level, and motivational strength, with self-regulation as well as self-perceived language proficiency. Two research questions were raised for the inspection of the causal-effect relationships:
Research Question 3: Do learners from diverse gender and grade levels with different levels of strength in choice motivation vary in their self-perceived language achievement?
Research Question 4: Do learners from diverse gender and grade levels with different levels of strength in choice motivation vary in their self-regulatory capacity in language learning?
In the initial stage of the multivariate analysis, the results showed that there was significant main effects among gender (F= 7.247, p< .01), grade-level (F= 3.247, p< .05), and motivational strength (F= 47.482, p< .001) with self-perceived language perception. Among the three independent variables, motivational strength appeared to have the highest significance on self-perceived achievement. On the other hand, the preliminary analysis of self-regulatory capacity showed that not only motivational strength (F= 125.105, p< .001) had main effect on learners’ self-regulatory capacity, but gender x grade-level, and gender x grade-level x motivational strength both had significant interaction effects with self-regulatory capacity.
5.4.1 The Effects of Gender, Grade-Level and Motivational Strength on Self-Perceived Language Proficiency
The three critical components in second language acquisition adopted in the current study--- gender, grade-level, and motivational strength--- have shown to have no interaction effects with self-perceived language proficiency. Therefore, a follow-up descriptive analysis of the mean scores on each variable was proposed. The results
71
revealed that female learners generally perceived themselves to perform better than male learners. This finding contradicts with some of the previous studies whose results suggested that females usually had lower self-perceptions of ability than males (e.g., Wigfield et al, 1996) attributing to the fact that males are considered to be more self-congratulatory , and females are relatively more modest when it comes to self- judgment. However, female learners having higher self-perception in the current study, which was carried out in an EFL context, can be explained by the finding of several studies done by Eccles and his colleagues that females tend to have higher self-perceptions in more feminine learning domains, such as English and reading.
The results further confirmed that both male and female learners perceived themselves to have higher English proficiency in the first year of high school than in the second year of high school. The finding is consistent with many of the studies that examined learners’ developmental differences in self-perception of competence.
Previous studies have shown that there is a decrease in the mean level of self-perceived achievement as learners develop age-wise (e.g. Eccles & Midgley, 1989; Eccles, Midgley & Adler, 1984; Harter, 1990, 1998), and Marsh (1989) further found that the lowest point of self-perception occurred in eighth or ninth grade.
However, development in age might not be the most inclusive explanation for the finding in the current study. A more accurate explanation for the drop in self-perceptions of competences across grade levels in an EFL classroom would be the contextual changes of the learning environment. As proposed by a number of researchers (e.g. Eccles, Midgley, Wigfield, Reuman et al., 1993; Marshall &
Weinstein, 1984; Rosenholtz & Simpson, 1984), the increasing difficulty of learning materials and the feedback from the teachers directly influence learners’
self-perceived proficiency. For high school English learners in Taiwan, there is a noticeable discrepancy between the learning materials used in the first year of high
72
school and those used in the second year. As the course becomes more demanding, the chances for learners to fail to attain desired achievement goal increases; and it is not surprising to observe that learners who do not perform well in their academic tasks tend to perceive themselves as lower achievers.
The means of self-perceived language proficiency among high motivational strength group, medium motivational strength group, and low motivational strength group revealed that learners with high motivational strength tended to perceive themselves to perform well on the learning task, followed by learners with medium motivational strength and lastly learners with low motivational strength. Given that learners’ motivation was inspected from an expectancy-value perspective, the result suggested that learners with higher expectation of success and higher value in the course (i.e. English) tend to recognize themselves to be more proficient in the language; on the contrary, learners who do not expect themselves to do well and/ or do not have high value in their learning tasks in the English class are more likely to also perceive themselves as low achievers. This finding bears an important pedagogical implication for the reason that teachers can now have a clearer understanding on the psychological bearing hidden underneath the learning process and provide more appropriate solution for learners based on their status. Pintrich and Schunk (2002) specifically offered some teaching principles to facilitate learners’
expectancy-value motivation and self-perception in the classroom, including:
1. Help students maintain relatively accurate but high expectations and perceptions of competence and help students avoid the illusion of incompetence.
2. Students’ perceptions of competence develop not just from accurate feedback from the teacher, but through actual success on challenging academic tasks. Keep tasks and assignments at a relatively challenging but reasonable level of difficulty.
3. Foster the beliefs that competence or ability is a changeable, controllable aspect of development.
73
4. Students’ perceptions of competence are domain specific and are not equivalent to global self-esteem. It is more productive for academic learning to help students develop their self-perceptions of competence rather than their global self-esteem.
5. Teachers should offer rationales for schoolwork that include discussion of the importance and utility value of the work.
6. Model value and interest in the content of the lesson or unit.
(Pintrich & Schunk, 2002, pp. 87-89)
These principles, as suggested by their providers, are flexible and should be adapted according to the learning environment of different classrooms.
5.4.2 The Effects of Gender, Grade-Level and Motivational Strength on Self-Regulation
In the between-subjects analyses, interaction effect among gender x grade-level x motivational strength on self-regulatory capacity was detected; therefore, further analyses (i.e., simple interaction effects and simple simple main effects) were carried out in order to investigate the nature of interaction among different levels of the variables.
The results revealed that volition acts as a significant mediator in the English learning process for the following groups: both male and female learners in the second year of high school with high motivational strength (F= 14.19, p< .001); male learners in both the first year and the second year of high school with high motivational strength (F= 16.47, p< .001); both male and female learners in the second year of high school with low motivational strength (F= 4.12, p< .01); female learners in the second year of high school with all levels of motivational strength (F=
36.20, p< .001); male learners in the second year of high school with all levels of motivational strength (F= 32.78, p< .001); male learners in the first years of high school with all levels of motivational strength (F= 45.85, p< .001).
74
We can first generalize from the findings that self-regulatory capacity is crucial for both male and female learners in the second year of high school with either high motivational strength, or low motivational strength. This suggests that when students move up to their second year of high school, the English learning process becomes more volitional-controlled. For learners with high motivational strength, they may become self-directed and utilize strategies cognitively or metacognitively to enhance their learning; they expect themselves to be successful in the command of the language, and perceive the value of learning English to be high. Volition acts as a facilitator for these learners in their pursuit of the expected academic achievement. On the other hand, for learners with low motivational strength, volition operates as a protector in their learning process in order to help them proceed. These learners may not expect themselves to be successful in learning English because they have not had much possible feedback from the past learning experiences; nor do they foresee the value of mastering the language because of the learning context (i.e., and EFL environment) which can exclude English from some students’ life experiences.
Nonetheless, these students with low motivational strength still need to maintain a certain level of English achievement due to the fact that English is a compulsory course in high schools in Taiwan. Self-regulatory capacity may aid these students to adopt strategies that can enhance the continuity of their learning process.
Another generalization made from the finding in the current study, unexpectedly, is that self-regulatory capacity in English language learning seems to be more critical in male learners than female learners. Male learners in both the first and the second year of high school with all levels of motivational strength exhibited significant self-regulatory capacity, especially those with high motivational strength.
This result contradicts dramatically with most of the previous studies where self- regulatory capacity was generally found to demonstrate more in females (e.g.
75
Raffaelli, Crockett, & Shen, 2005; Kochanska, Murray, & Harlan, 2000; Murphy et al., 1999). However, the current study differs from the previous research in many aspects:
first, most of the previous research focused on self-regulatory capacity of young children aged approximately six to twelve. Very few, if any, studies have thoroughly inspected self-regulatory capacity of late-adolescents. Second, none of the studies mentioned was conducted under the scope of language learning, let alone in an EFL context.
A study done by May et al. (2006) may provide some explanation for the phenomenon that male learners tend to display more self-regulatory capacity in English language learning. In their study, the authors suggested that for male learners who are involved in traditionally feminine courses (e.g., English), it is likely that they engage in more deep-thinking than females about their decisions during the learning process in order to be successful. The current study found that male learners in both the first year of high school and the second year of high school with high motivational strength showed more volitional control than male learners with medium or low motivational strength. This implies that in English learning, male learners who expect themselves to be successful and also value highly of the learning tasks have a propensity to plan, set goals, self-monitor, and constantly reflect on their learning.
Overall, the causal-effect studies of self-regulation in English language learning provide us with the knowledge that self-regulatory capacity acts as a strong mediator for learners in the second year of high school with either high or low motivational strength, and for male learners of both grade levels with all levels of motivational strength, high motivational strength being the most significant. On the basis of the results, English teachers as well as learners may have a more in-depth notion on the aspects of which the learning process needs to be further enhanced.
76
5.5 Summary of Chapter Five
This chapter offers the discussions based on the results of analyses. These discussions are arranged to answer the research questions raised in chapter one and further confirm the hypotheses: Hypothesis 1 has been validated for the SRClang scale was successfully developed to perform as a measurement tool for diagnosing learners’ self-regulatory capacity in English learning. With the operation of SRClang, it was found that learners with higher level or self-regulatory capacity perceive themselves to do better in English learning compared with learners with lower level of self-regulatory capacity, which directly proved Hypothesis 2 to be true. Also, it was discovered that female learners generally perceive themselves to have higher proficiency than males; self-perceptions were the highest among learners in the first year of high school, and among those with high motivational strength. Hypothesis 3 can be verified with the results of main effects, but it was not proven that the three variables had interaction effects on self-perceived proficiency. Surprisingly, Hypothesis 4 was not confirmed for that male learners with higher E-V motivation were found to have a higher level of self-regulatory capacity, and learners in the second year of high school, in fact, demonstrated more volitional control in the English learning process.
