Incorporating Cyclical Model of Self-Regulation into Korean High School EFL Learners

Abstract

The study applied Zimmerman’s cyclical model of self-regulation to an EFL high school classroom and explored how it affects learner motivation, strategy use, and reading comprehension. The cycle of self-regulation process was introduced to seventeen students who participated in the study. Five learning strategies were introduced during a 100 minute English lesson each week for five weeks. Participants took motivation questionnaire, strategy use check list, and reading comprehension tests before and after those lessons. Data analyzed using paired sample t-test show that there was a significant increase in terms of motivation level and strategy use. More specifically, for motivation level, 13 out of 18 motivation aspects showed improvement and for learning strategy use, there was a statistically meaningful increase in 17 out of 25 items. However, there was not any meaningful increase in reading comprehension tests and this result can be explained with the lack of time or the cognitive load caused by strategy use. All in all, the study suggests teachers help learners improve motivation, strategy use, and self-regulatory ability by incorporating the model into their EFL classroom.