The relationship between self-regulation and learners' writing ability among Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners

Background and Objectives: Language learning research has been paying more attention to the factors that may   affect   the   choice   by   language   learners   of   learning   strategies   in general and writing strategies in particular to enhance their own learning. Consistent with the studies conducted, the present study sought to explore the relationship between self-regulation strategy on writing ability of a group of Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners.Methodology: The study was conducted in ۲۰۲۳ adopting a correlational approach as it examined whether there was a relationship between students’ self-regulation and the levels of their writing skill. ۴۰ participants selected out of ۸۰ whose homogeneity was determined by the Michigan test (۱۹۹۷) were chosen for the study. The students were given a writing task, along with a questionnaire on self-regulation strategy and their writing tasks were checked using Jacob et.al’s (۱۹۸۱) scale. Path analysis was used to test the path of learning approaches in seven components of self-regulation. All the statistics were conducted on SPSS software ۲۱ for data analysis.Results: Using the Pearson correlation to compare the performances of students, the results revealed that, as far as total performance was concerned, there was a significant positive correlation between self-regulated learning components and writing ability. Considering the sub- components of the Self-regulation learning scale, the Goal setting with the correlation coefficient value of (r = ۰/۶۳۵) and the memory strategy with (r =۰/۳۳۲) had the highest and lowest correlation with writing, respectively. Conclusion: The study confirmed the fact that among the components of the self-regulation strategy, goal setting and self-evaluation had the potentialities to predict the relationship between self-regulation learning and the writing ability.

Keywords:

self-regulation , Writing Ability , upper-intermediate , EFL