Development Of Student Engagement Questionnaire On College English Curriculum

As an important indicator for students’ learning process, “student engagement” emphasizes the significant role of students in the teaching and learning process. Researchers in this field have developed many reliable questionnaires. The research subject covers all levels of students, focusing on primary and secondary school students. Most questionnaires are designed to investigate students’ overall learning and no student engagement questionnaire on foreign language learning could be found. Due to the foreign language environment of English learning, those student engagement questionnaires cannot be used to study College English directly. Thus, a student engagement questionnaire specific to College English curriculum is in urgent need. Theoretically, the development of the questionnaire could refine researches about student engagement and deepen the understanding of students’ College English learning process. Practically, this study could provide an instrument for researchers and teachers to investigate students’ College English learning process.Newmann defined student engagement in 1992 firstly and pointed out that it involved students’ psychological investment. Then both domestic and foreign researchers summarized its three-dimension structure which included behavioral engagement, emotional engagement and cognitive engagement. Since researchers proved that the three-dimension structure can be employed to study college students’ learning process, present study chose Newmann’s student engagement and its three-dimension structure as theoretical basis and developed the College English Curriculum Student Engagement Questionnaire accordingly. The whole research contains five procedures. Firstly, the definition and structure of College English curriculum student engagement were clarified through documentary analysis. Secondly, 90 items were selected for the development of the questionnaire from 19 existing questionnaires about student engagement and College English learning, records of classroom observation and analysis of open-ended questionnaire accordingly. Next, the 62-item pilot questionnaire was formed after deleting some improper items through dimension-categorization and a small sample test. Then, the 22-item formal questionnaire was developed based on data analysis of the pilot test in which 300 undergraduates participated. At last, 500 students were selected to finish the formal test, and according to the results, the reliability and validity of the formal questionnaire were verified.The results show that(1) College English curriculum student engagement enjoys a three-dimension structure which includes students’ behavioral engagement, emotional engagement and cognitive engagement toward College English curriculum;(2) possessing satisfactory reliability and validity, the 22-item College English Curriculum Student Engagement Questionnaire can be used to investigate students’ College English learning process;(3) different from some speculative researches which emphasize the core position of emotional engagement, present study reveals that the three dimensions of College English curriculum student engagement are mutually independent as well as related, with cognitive engagement occupying a more fundamental position than emotional and behavioral engagement.It is concluded from present study that the three-dimension structure of College English curriculum student engagement is rational, and the reliability and validity of the College English Curriculum Student Engagement Questionnaire have reached the statistical standard.