Motivation, self-regulation, and writing achievement on a university foundation programme: A programme evaluation study

This programme evaluation study examined the changes in writing motivation, self-regulation and integrated writing task scores of international students over the course of a pre-sessional course on English for academic purposes (EAP). In addition, the study also investigated the relationship between writing task motivation, self-regulation, and essay scores at the beginning and end of the course. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design was utilized. Participants’ (n = 64) motivation and self-regulation were assessed at the beginning and the end of the month-long course using self-report questionnaires. Furthermore, participants completed an integrated writing task in the first and final weeks of the course. Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests showed motivation and self-regulatory strategy use to remain stable over time, except for self-efficacy measures which increased significantly. In addition, scores on the integrated writing task increased significantly. Spearman’s rank correlation analysis confirmed the strong inter-relationship between self-efficacy and self-regulation. At the end of the course, mastery goals, performance-approach goals, and utility value were found to be significantly correlated to essay scores. Further results and implications for foundation course developers will be covered in the article.