Fallen Between the Cracks : Students’ Motivation and Use of Learning Strategies in English 5: A comparison between an academic and a vocational program

Sammanfattning: Recent reports have indicated that students’ motivation is declining, and that students in vocational programs show particularly low motivation. However, studies show that motivation and Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) strategies are closely intertwined, where motivation is depicted as an instigating and maintaining force that fuels a learner’s efforts toward a goal, and SRL-strategies are the actions that learners use to solve different tasks and structure their own learning processes. The result of these studies infer that vocational students’ struggle may not only be explained through having low motivation, but perhaps also through having few and/or ineffective learning strategies. To gain insight into this matter, this study  aims to research what vocational- and general academic program students in upper secondary school report on their motivation and use of SRL-strategies when solving individual assignments in English class, and whether there are any tangible differences between the two programs. The study uses a quantitative method, where a questionnaire was used to elicit 22 vocational program students’, and 29 academic program students’ self-perceived positions in regard to different statements related to motivation and SLR-strategy use. The statements were answered through a seven-point Likert scale. The study found that academic program students report higher for all types of motivation and SRL-strategy use, although vocational students only report slightly lower in comparison. The more tangible differences were that vocational program students reported for significantly higher anxiety, less sense of responsibility, and use of fewer socio-affective strategies. This study’s results show that there are some tangible differences between the two groups. The study can therefore be used as a stepping-stone for future studies on how to help students in becoming more capable.