Individual differences in students’ motivational regulation strategies (MRSs) and their relations with learner motivation and learning achievement remain under-researched particularly in secondary English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. We therefore conducted latent profile analysis (LPA) to investigate a sample of Chinese secondary school students (N = 489) to demonstrate person-centered differences in MRSs in English learning, and examined how MRSs profile groups differed in motivational orientation and English test scores. Motivational orientation profiles were further examined to see how they related to the MRSs profiles. Four distinct MRSs profiles emerged: goal-oriented MRSs profile, low MRSs profile, moderate MRSs profile, and high MRSs profile. Students with the highest level of various MRSs (high profile) and those emphasising use of regulation of mastery/performance goals (goal-oriented profile) gained similarly high English test scores, while those with the lowest use of MRSs (low profile) reported the lowest motivational orientation and English test scores. There was relatively high congruence between MRSs and motivational orientation profiles, as indicated by high proportions of participants endorsing similar levels of both MRSs and motivational orientation profiles. Important pedagogical implications of these results were discussed.
Luo et al. (Wed,) studied this question.