The relationship between self regulation capacity and vocabulary knowledge of adult EFL learners

This study was carried out in order to investigate the relationship between vocabulary size and self-regulation capacity of adult EFL learners. In addition to this, we also wanted to learn about the general self-regulation capacity, and vocabulary size of the participants. We also tried to delve into the relationship between participants' sub categories of self-regulation capacity and their vocabulary size with regards to gender, cycle of study, and nationality. Further, we tried to comprehend the high and low scorers use of self-regulated vocabulary learning strategies. The participants of the study were a mix of Turkish and international undergraduate, master, and PhD students from a foundation university in Istanbul. Participants were distributed self-regulation capacity in vocabulary learning scale and vocabulary size test. We used SPSS 22 in order to statistically analyze our findings by using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation features. Lastly, we conducted semi-structured interviews with high scorers and low scorers to observe if there is any observable difference between these two groups in utilizing self-regulated vocabulary learning strategies. We found the self-regulation capacity of the participants relatively high. Most of the participants showed their vocabulary knowledge around or above the expected threshold required for academic studies. As for the relationship between vocabulary size and self-regulation, the highest correlation was found to be with environmental control capacity while satiation and emotion control capacities were found to be least correlated with participants' vocabulary size. Lastly, we observed that high scorers deployed a diversity of self-regulated vocabulary learning strategies than low scorers did. Keywords: Self-regulation capacity, Vocabulary Size, Language Learning Strategies, Subcategories of Self-Regulation