Profiles of primary school students’ motivation, anxiety, and proficiency: relationships with self-regulation in L2 collaborative learning

Abstract Self-regulated learning (SRL) is critical for second language (L2) acquisition, especially in collaborative learning settings emphasizing autonomy. Prior research has inspected factors affecting SRL individually within general learning contexts through variable-centered methods that disregard individual differences. This study applied person-centered latent profile analysis (LPA) on 373 primary school students to explore how profiles of motivation, anxiety, and proficiency collectively impact SRL in L2 collaborative learning. The LPA results favored five profiles: very-motivated-with-high-proficiency-and-low-anxiety, very-motivated-with-low-proficiency-and-high-anxiety, unmotivated-with-average-proficiency-and-average-anxiety, average-motivated-with-low-proficiency-and-average-anxiety, and average-motivated-with-high-proficiency-and-low-anxiety. Students’ profiles significantly affected their SRL strategy use, with more motivated profiles showing more frequent use of SRL strategies. Interestingly, compared with very-motivated-with-high-proficiency-and-low-anxiety group, the very-motivated-with-low-proficiency-and-high-anxiety group used more goal-setting and planning strategies and self-evaluation strategies but less behavioral regulation strategies. These findings challenged the oversimplified correlations previously assumed between these variables, underscoring the complex motivational and emotional experiences of L2 learners within collaborative learning contexts and the need to consider individual differences in SRL across learner groups.