Understanding academic transition and self-regulation: a case study of English majors in China

The paper examines how EFL learners develop self-regulated learning (SRL) during the transition from high school to university, a period marked by major changes in role requirements and study context. University learning entails greater independence, deeper content, and heavier workloads, making SRL—goal setting, strategy selection, monitoring, and reflection—crucial. Prior research often treats SRL as a static aptitude or examines its association with performance quantitatively, leaving the developmental process underexplored, particularly among EFL students in China. Addressing this gap, the study asks: How do university EFL students harness their SRL skills throughout their year-long academic transition? The goal is to generate nuanced, context-specific insights to inform educators, departments, and parents.

Research on academic transitions depicts them as periods of crisis involving limited institutional guidance, time-management challenges, language proficiency gaps, and reduced social support. While many studies focus on social sciences, EFL transitions are less examined, especially in China, where work has centered on broad adjustment or specific aspects (identity change, pedagogy). SRL research largely uses quantitative methods, showing that SRL predicts success but rarely tracing how SRL develops over time. Treating SRL as static may obscure its developmental nature. Emerging work suggests peers influence SRL, yet the role of peers (support vs. competition) in China is underexplored. This study adopts a developmental lens to investigate EFL learners’ SRL patterns across one year of academic transition.

Design: Qualitative case study to capture complex, contextualized patterns of SRL development over one year. Research context: English department of a top Chinese university renowned for foreign language instruction. Students’ pre-university English learning was exam-oriented and teacher-centered, emphasizing lexical/grammatical knowledge for the National Higher Education Entrance Examination. At university, instruction is content-based and student-centered (core skills plus social science courses), requiring extensive autonomous learning. Participants: Four first-year female EFL majors (2020–2021), typical of Chinese EFL learners but with diverse schooling backgrounds (e.g., prestigious urban schools vs. resource-limited schools; one admitted via autonomous college admission). Most had minimal prior SRL experience. Data collection: Four alternating reflective journals and semi-structured interviews across the academic year (after mid-first semester; start of second semester; mid-second semester; pre-end of second semester). Journals were in Chinese, guided by prompts about recent learning, ~800 words each. Interviews (Chinese) lasted 60–120 minutes initially and 45–75 minutes subsequently and probed recent learning experiences and SRL-related adjustments. Analysis: Inductive thematic analysis. Transcripts/journals were repeatedly read, coded, and refined into categories and themes (e.g., preparation for SRL, peer pressure and strategy exploration, goal setting). Triangulation between interviews and journals. The second author reviewed analyses; bilingual checks ensured accuracy of translated excerpts.

- Four overarching themes characterized SRL development during transition: 1) Active preparation amid challenges: Students recognized university freedom necessitated SRL but struggled with time management and workload. Prior teacher-directed learning constrained their initial SRL attempts. They exercised agency by seeking solutions (instructor consultations, peer supervision groups) and adjusting methods (e.g., addressing Chinglish in writing). 2) Exploration of SRL strategies facilitated by peer pressure: Comparing themselves to peers prompted self-assessment, strategy refinement, and adoption of peer practices (e.g., rehearsing speeches). Peer pressure often spurred planning and practice but could also heighten anxiety for some (idiosyncratic responses). 3) Clash between strategies and goal setting: Reduced instructor guidance and limited peer collaboration led to misaligned plans (overambitious schedules, difficulty sustaining routines). Students’ underdeveloped planning/regulation capacities hindered effective SRL strategy enactment. 4) Re-establishment of learning goals to complement SRL: Students clarified specialization interests (e.g., shifting toward literature) based on internal interests and external course experiences. Clearer goals fostered sustained SRL (e.g., habitual reading supporting literature coursework). Some students retained vague goals, limiting SRL focus. - Overall patterns: SRL activation was largely externally triggered by negative experiences (content difficulty, competitive peer comparisons), then sustained by self-agency through iterative goal-setting and strategy adjustment. Transition phases were non-linear and overlapping rather than strictly sequential. Data specifics: 4 participants; one academic year; 4 journals and 4 interviews per participant; journals ~800 words; interviews 45–120 minutes.

Findings address the research question by showing that EFL students initiate and refine SRL in response to external challenges (content demands, peer comparisons) and through self-agency, progressing via iterative goal-setting and strategy experimentation. This contributes a process-oriented, qualitative account often missing in SRL and EFL transition literature dominated by quantitative, outcome-focused studies. The study highlights peer pressure—rather than only peer support—as a salient facilitator in the Chinese context, where competitive environments may prompt imitation of effective strategies and meticulous preparation. Importantly, students’ transition phases co-occur and overlap, suggesting a non-linear, multi-phase model of SRL development during academic transition. This reframes transition from a simple sequence to a dynamic, individualized process shaped by prior schooling, available guidance, and personal goals, with implications for designing supports that scaffold time management, strategic learning, and reflective goal-setting.

The study provides an in-depth qualitative account of how Chinese university EFL majors develop SRL over their first year, showing that external negative experiences catalyze SRL, peer pressure can foster strategy adoption, and evolving, clarified goals sustain self-regulation. It advances understanding of SRL as a dynamic, non-linear process during academic transition and underscores the contextual role of competitive peer dynamics. Practical implications include developing preparatory programs that anticipate transition challenges and teach SRL strategies, encouraging instructors to offer broad guidance that scaffolds independence, and introducing content-literacy strategies at pre-tertiary levels (e.g., genre-based approaches). Future research should broaden samples (gender, institutions), extend longitudinal scope, and track SRL development across pre-tertiary and tertiary stages to capture dynamics and generalizability.

Convenience sampling of four female students from a prestigious foreign language university limits representativeness and generalizability to broader Chinese undergraduate EFL populations. Participants may differ from peers who struggle to enter or remain in elite institutions. The one-year timeframe constrains observation of longer-term SRL evolution. Future studies should include larger, more diverse cohorts (including male students), adopt longer-term longitudinal designs, and examine pre-tertiary stages and varied educational contexts to better capture SRL development dynamics.