Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Most linguistic researchers believe that the second language learning is a complex process of internalization and many factors such as motivation, self-regulation, native language and classroom situation influence the process of second language learning. In addition, some linguistic theories such as cognitive and functional linguistics, which all believe that there are many interdependent changeable factors in the language learning system just as in social situation and human beings minds. However, people who believe in the complex system have realized that different theories can exist well in one system, so there is no core theory which totally represent all the changeable factors in this system, the complex situation and the unpredictable results. All those above makes it possible for researchers to make deep research in this field.
In order to improve students' ability of autonomous learning in foreign languages, universities in our country have set up self-regulation learning center. However, it is far from enough for students to cultivate their self-regulated learning ability through a few short courses. On the purpose of helping the learners to improve their self-regulation ability, it is necessary to understand the characteristics and development rules of students' learning psychology, especially the characteristics and development rules of learners' foreign language learning motivation.
Littlewood (1996) believes that self-regulation ability includes the motivation and confidence to choose, and learners have the desire and ability to make choices independently. In recent years, the most significant development of the L2 motivation research is the introduction of the concept of self and identity. Dörnyei (2005) by drawing on the latest achievements in social psychology, put forward "L2 Motivational Self System Theory", and the combination of the learners' self and identity emphasize the L2 motivational system in the future perspective is an important driving force for self-regulated students in foreign language learning. In view of this, this paper focuses on the relationship between students' L2 self and self-regulation.
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1.2 Purpose of the Study
Dörnyei's L2 motivational self system theory is relatively new, and in the community of L2 learning motivation research, most people have paid their attention to the validation of this theory, only few empirical studies on the new theory. This paper will talk about L2 motivation on the other side. And this paper will discuss the reasons between L2 self and self-regulation, all those are very important on the process oflearning a new foreign language as well as teaching. Student, teacher and others can get a great understanding on inpidual differences of L2 and self-regulation, after that, teachers will choose the most best way to teach students, all those measure will more effective than before.
The significance of studying motivation in the framework of L2MSS not only lies in the current L2 research field but also in the actual teaching situation. In China, English is becoming increasingly important and more people start to regard it as a lifetime study. From primary to college, English is a compulsory course at school, and student has to pass English exam to get the graduation certificate. However, there are still lots of students who lack the efficient English learning skills. Conducting the research of the L2 learning motivation and self-regulation is expected to enable the teachers to discover more suitable strategies to motivate students to get good grade.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 L2 Learning Motivation
This part attempts to give a brief introduction to the definition of the motivation and L2 motivation, indicating its process of development and some different ideas proposed by different scholars.
2.1.1 Definition of L2 Learning Motivation
Motivation derives from the Latin word "movere" that means "move, promote or drive to action". With the study of motivation, it has many explanations based on its original one. Deci and Ryan (1985) stated that motivation was some intrinsic factors or power to motivate learners’ intention, desire, impulse, and purpose included. Ames (1992) defined that motivation was the driving power to goals. Csikszentmihalyi (1997) held that inpiduals coordinated between internal needs and external factors under the influence of self-adjustment, in the process of which some motivational factors were inspired and maintained. Dörnyei (2009) considered motivation was a kind of intrinsic factor that guided inpiduals to drive for their dreams, to maintain their actions and to attain their objectives. Much later, Dörnyei & Ushioda (2014) put that motivation, a dynamic process, included a series of actions such as a desire to learn and maintain high motivation. In short, different scholars from different perspectives have different understanding of motivation.
L2 motivation, also called learning persistence, referred to learners' psychological factors that inspire and maintain their learning activities for realization of goals (Gardner &Lambert, 1972). L2 motivation consisted of the desire of learning a language, effort and the positive attitude towards language learning (Gardner, 1985). L2 motivation was the combination of desire, effort and attitude to learn a language，and students could study with a proactive attitude and demonstrate high self-learning habits, achieve better academic performance only if they held a strong motivation Oxford & Shearin (1994). Lv and Yang (2013) defined L2 motivation was for learners' overall goal or orientation. L2 leaners should have a strong desire to learn a foreignlanguage and produce a driving force in action and then take action, in the process of learning L2 motivation could transfer boredom into interest to some extent.
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2.2 Self-Regulation Theory
2.2.1 Self-Regulation Learning in Education
At present, there is no unified view on the definition of self-regulated learning:Zimmerman (2000) believes that self-regulated learning is the spontaneous thinking, emotion and behavior of learners for the realization of some specific educational goals. It is a complex process for inpiduals to apply their specific tasks to real life. Schunk (1989) believes that self-regulated learning is a series of behavior processes for the purpose of achieving a particular personal purpose. Pintrich and De Groot (1990) believes that self-regulated learning is a series of processes, which are used to achieve a particular personal purpose in the changing external environment. Wolter (1998) believes that self-regulation is a feedback loop that reduces the gap between ideal and desired behavior. Hoyle and Sherrill (2006) believes that the definition of self-regulated learning should include goal setting, effort process and strategy, feedback and self-evaluation.
It can be seen that different experts have different understanding of self-regulated learning, but their understanding of the nature of self-regulated learning is roughly the same. Therefore, according to the previous research, this paper defines self-regulated learning as follows: Self-regulated learning refers to the process in which learners adjust their cognition, emotion, motivation and behavior in order to improve their learning and achieve their learning goals. From the perspective of the cognitive process, self-regulated learners can plan, set goals, organize themselves, monitor themselves and evaluate themselves at all stages of the process of acquiring knowledge. These processes help learners understand themselves and make decisions. From the motivational process perspective, the self-regulated learner believes that he is autonomous and motivated by internal motivation; from the behavior perspective, self-regulated learners are self-directed and self-managing in their achievement goals.
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Chapter Three Theoretical Framework ............... 11
3.1 L2 Motivational Self System .................... 11
3.1.1 Theoretical Bases.......................... 11
3.1.2 Components of L2 Motivational Self System ............... 12
Chapter Four Research Design ........................... 21
4.1 Research Questions ................. 21
4.2 Participants..................... 21
Chapter Five Results ............................ 24
5.1 The L2 Self Evolvement ........................ 24
5.2 The Self-Regulation Process ................... 26
Chapter Six Discussion
6.1 The Influencing Factors on the L2 Self
In this part, the author mainly analyzes the causes of the L2 self change from social and educational psychology perspectives, and the theories that will be used in this part are Integrative Motivation Theory (Gardner,1985), Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) and Attribution Theory (Dörnyei,2005). The consequence of the analysis is that ten subjects' L2 self changes were mainly affected by internal and external factors, among which the ideal L2 self mainly received the influence of internal motivation; the ought-to self should be mainly influenced by external motivation. In addition, there are a number of factors that are caused by the internal and external causes, called integrative motivation. Finally, according to the information the author finally makes three parts of the ten students, extrinsic one, the intrinsic one and finally the integrative one.
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Chapter Seven Conclusion
7.1 Main Findings
reference(omitted)