Chapter 4: Understanding English Language Learners’ Self-Regulated Learning Strategies: Case Studies of Chinese Children in U.S. Classrooms and Home Communities

Drawing upon the social cognitive and sociocultural perspectives of self-regulation, this study examined the development of four Chinese elementary school students’ self-regulated learning strategies and how these strategies were learned and employed across home-based and school-based contexts. Qualitative data collected from multiple resources (interviews, observations, reading and writing tasks, and school documents) suggested that students reported more strategies in reading activities than in writing activities. The most commonly used strategies employed were seeking social assistance, seeking information, reviewing records, and environmental structuring. Further analyses indicated that the inclusion of self-regulation in classroom practices and parental scaffolding facilitated the development of children’s self-regulated learning strategies.