ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1582455
This article is part of the Research TopicEnhancing Learning through Cognitive and Social Inclusion Practices in EducationView all 13 articles
Self-Regulation as a Stronger Predictor than Motivation of Translation Competence: A Mixed-Methods Study of Undergraduate Translation Students
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Advanced Translation and Interpretation, Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Dalian, China
- 2Lancaster University, Lancaster, England, United Kingdom
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This study moves beyond the traditional focus on motivation to critically investigate the dominant role of self-regulation in shaping translation competence within a flipped classroom setting. Using a rigorous mixed-methods design, data were collected from 131 undergraduate translation students through questionnaires, translation tests, and interviews. The findings reveal that while motivation initiates learner engagement, it is self-regulation-encompassing goal-setting, self-monitoring, and strategic adaptationthat ultimately determines students'ability to navigate the complex demands of translation tasks. Regression analyses confirmed that self-regulation is a stronger and more consistent predictor of translation competence than motivation. Qualitative data further illustrate that students lacking self-regulatory strategies often struggle despite being highly motivated, highlighting the limitations of motivation alone. These results call for a paradigm shift in translator education: pedagogical models must move beyond motivation enhancement to explicitly cultivate learners' self-regulation skills. By embedding cognitive and metacognitive training into curricula, translation programs can better prepare students for the complexities of professional practice. This research contributes empirical evidence and pedagogical insights to both translation studies and educational psychology, advocating a comprehensive approach that develops not just motivated learners but strategic, self-directed translation professionals.
Keywords: Self-regulation, Motivation, Translation competence, flipped classroom, Undergraduate translation students
Received: 27 Mar 2025; Accepted: 05 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xu and Guénier. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dan Xu, School of Advanced Translation and Interpretation, Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Dalian, China
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