Profiles of EFL Learners’ Online Self-regulation and Their Relationship with Dimensions of Self-determination Motivation in Mainland China

Self-regulation and language learning motivation have always been the research focus of foreign language acquisition. In higher education, the heterogeneity of college students creates diversity in SRL abilities, especially with the prevalence of online learning nowadays. The current study investigates the profiles of college EFL learners’ self-regulation and predictive role of self-determination motivation on the membership of SRL profiles in an online learning environment. Online self-regulation learning questionnaire was administered to examine the potential profiles, and self-determination motivation questionnaire to reveal the relationship between online self-regulation and self-determination motivation with a total of 439 college EFL learners. Latent profile analysis yielded three subgroups of online self-regulation: high, median, and low. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that external regulation, intrinsic motivation–stimulation, and intrinsic motivation–accomplishment in self-determination motivation can effectively predict the online self-regulation profiles membership. These results altogether suggest that online SRL profiles can be predicted by several aspects in self-determination motivation in EFL learning.