Using psychological networks to reveal the interplay between foreign language students’ self-regulated learning tactics

Students’ ability to self-regulate their individual and collaborative learning activities while performing challenging academic writing tasks is instrumental for their academic success. Presently, the majority of such learning activities often occur in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) settings, in which students generate digital learner data. Examining this data may provide valuable insights into their self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviours. Such an understanding is important for educators to provide adequate support. Recent advances in the fields of learning analytics (LA) and SRL offer new ways to analyse such data and understand students’ dynamic SRL processes. This study uses a novel psychological network method, i.e., Gaussian Graphical Models, to model the interactions between the students’ SRL tactics and how they influence language learning in a CSCL setting for academic writing. The data for this study was generated by first-year foreign language students (n=119) who used a Facebook group as a collaborative space for peer review in an academic writing course. The theoretical lens of strategic self-regulated language learning was applied. The findings show a strong connection between the following tactics: writing text, social bonding and acknowledging. Strong connections between students’ reflective activities and their application of feedback, as well as between acculturating, organising and using resources were also identified. Centrality measures showed that acculturating is most strongly connected to all other tactics, followed by acknowledging and social bonding. Expected influence centrality measures showed acculturating and social interactions to be strong influencers. Students’ academic performance and their use of tactics showed little correlation.