University students' self-regulation in standard and enforced online language learning

Abstract

Since new learning environments are believed to affect student motivation and cognition, and thus, have a huge impact on the processes underlying self-regulated learning, the transition to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have challenged students’ ability to remain in charge of the learning process. Distance language learners could be particularly challenged by profusion of material, cognitive overload or unsettled participation patterns. Based on introspective data obtained from a representative sample of 321 university students majoring in various foreign languages, the present study aims to compare participants’ self-regulation in standard and online education and identify problem areas which demand action. At the same time, it seeks to respond to earlier calls for providing teachers with insights into students’ changing self-regulation routines and the processes underlying these changes. Data analysis clearly indicates that participants’ self-regulation (SR) has significantly deteriorated due to the shift from standard to online learning with respect to all the investigated SR areas. Also, while the investigated students reported a relatively high level of SR in the planning stage, their dramatically low level of reflection over the learning process could be seen as an impediment to a smooth transition from standard to distance learning.

Self-regulatory learning strategies involving the use of linguistic landscape: the case of undergraduate multilingual learners

“…(Schunk, Zimmerman 2003: 72). It is also in line with the findings within the field of LL (Roos, Nicholas 2020, Chern, Dooley, 2014, according to which explicit instruction is required so that language learners can rely on LL as a source of input and language awareness as well as those from investigations of self-regulated language learning (Przybył, Chudak, 2022), according to which SR deteriorates in subsequent stages from planning to reflection.…”

“…Second, they also differ within these systems. For instance, critical for SRL, the degree of dialogue and structure in online language education under COVID-19 turned out to vary not just across countries, but also across faculties or departments of educational institutions (Przybył, Chudak, 2022). Third, as aptly pointed out by Kaplan (2008), in reality learning happens both in academic contexts and beyond -just to mention students' homes, cultural institutions, extracurricular settings, across settings or year abroad experiences unrelated to academic exchange.…”