语言教育与测评研究中心（CLEAR）教师团队王春岩、蔡雨阳等撰写的文章《动机调控策略与写作成绩的关系结构：“岛脊曲线”视角》（英文题名：Disentangling the relation between motivation regulation strategy and writing performance: A perspective of the Island Ridge Curve）在《外语界》2021年6月发表。
本次研究对写作过程中动机调控策略受语言水平波动性的干扰作用进行了考察，验证了二语研究中的“岛脊曲线”理论，为语言教学提供启发：策略培养要个性化制定，以免适得其反。岛脊曲线隐喻语言系统中语言对非语言要素所产生的波动性干扰作用。Cai 和Kunnan (2020) 在二语阅读研究中发现语言要素对策略使用产生波动效用，形如海岛的背脊，取名岛脊曲线。在不同语言知识的作用下，学习策略对阅读理解呈现出越用越差、稳定上升和再次下降的曲线效用模式。岛脊曲线在策略使用动态转移研究和语言与专业知识的互动研究中也得到了详细的阐述（Cai 2019; Cai &Kunnan 2019）。
In this recently published paper, the authors explored the effect of motivation regulation strategy on writing performance. The results again verified the mechanism of the IRC in the setting of writing. Pedagogically, the IRC suggests that language instructors should consider learner differences before implementing strategy intervention in reading or writing instruction.The Island Ridge Curve (IRC) metaphorically describes the fluctuating effect of nonlinguistic factors on language performance due to interference of language proficiency. IRC was discovered by Cai and Kunnan (2020) when exploring the effect of learning strategy on reading performance, where they found that learning strategy had a down-up-down curvilinear effect on reading performance. This nonlinear IRC model has been verified through a dynamic observation of learners’ strategy use, as well as with background knowledge effect in the setting of reading（Cai 2019; Cai &Kunnan 2019）.
动机调控策略指学习者在动机动摇和下降时，采用策略提高学习动机确保认知和元认知活动得以进行的策略。本研究中作者采用“人群中心+变量中心”的混合结构方程模型分析方法，对写作动机调控策略使用者群体进行先分类，再探索策略使用效用的方法。研究表明就动机调控策略使用的特点，学习者可以分为消极、均量和积极使用者三类。在三类群体中该策略对写作呈现低-高-低的“岛脊曲线”机制。
Motivational regulation explains how students overcome obstacles in their learning progress and sustain or increase their motivation so that further execution of cognitive skills can occur. In the study, the authors applied a mixture modeling approach that combined person-centered (Latent Profile Analyses or LPA) and variable-centered analyses (structural equation modeling or SEM). LPA identified three regulation profiles: low strategy users, medium strategy users, and high strategy users. Results of mixture SEM indicated the effect of motivation regulation strategies on writing showed a low-high-low pattern, which is consistent with the IRC.
从更加宏观的理论视角看，岛脊曲线是蔡雨阳教授提出的动态语言能力系统（DLAS）的一部分(Cai & Cheung 2021)，该理论受系统论的影响，认为在动态语言系统中，语言、知识、策略、思维等变量互相影响，并与系统外其他要素相互作用共同影响语言的发展。岛脊曲线生动呈现了DLAS理论中“黄金分割点” (即语言水平门槛)和两级效用原则(从某一特定的点开始，语言要素对语言表现的作用既可增长也下降)的两大基本规则。本研究在写作过程中的动机调控环境下再一次验证了岛脊曲线模型理论。该模型正在对语言教育和教育心理学产生影响。
From a broader perspective, the IRC model falls under the Dynamic Language Ability System (DLAS) (Cai & Cheung 2021), which follows the vein of Complex Theory or Systems Theory. According to the DLAS, subsystems such as language, knowledge, strategic and thinking competence intertwine as a whole, interacting with variables outside the language system simultaneously.IRC is a vivid presentation of the two principles of the DLAS, the “golden mean”(i.e., the middle benefit most) and the ‘bipolarity’(the potential to increase as well as to decrease). The study under discussion once again verified the validity of the IRC in the setting of writing motivation regulation during writing performance. The results of the study and the IRC have implications for research in language education as well as educational psychology.
References
Cai,Y. (2019, December).Moving from both ends towards the middle: The fluctuation of strategy use by Hong Kong secondary students across three years. Presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Conference 2019, Brisbane, Australia.
Cai, Y., & Cheung, H. (2021). A dynamic language ability system framework for diagnosing EMI students' readiness of English language ability. In L. I.-W. Su, H. Cheung, & J. R. W. Wu (Eds.), Rethinking EMI: Multidisciplinary perspectives from Chinese-speaking regions (pp. 141-160). Oxon: Routledge.
Cai, Y., &Kunnan, A. J. (2019). Detecting the language thresholds of the effect ofbackground knowledge on a language for specific purposes reading performance: Acase of the island ridge curve. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 42, article100795. doi:10.1016/j.jeap.2019.100795
Cai, Y., &Kunnan, A. J. (2020). Mapping the fluctuating effect of strategic competence on nursing students’ English reading performance: An approach of multilayered moderation analysis. Language Testing, 37(2), 280–304.
对本文以及对岛脊曲线感兴趣的读者，推荐以上极具价值参考文献。欢迎与作者联系（wangchunyan@suibe.edu.cn）索取《动机调控策略与写作成绩的关系解构：“岛脊曲线”视角》电子版校样。上述部分文献请见CLEAR中心网页蔡雨阳教授成果介绍：//www.whaleread.com/clear/17054/list.htm