A Correlational Study On Middle School Students’ English Learning Curiosity And Engagement

English learning curiosity refers to the learners’ desire for acquiring new knowledge in the process of English learning.The level of students’ curiosity for knowledge will have a great impact on the learning effect.The research on intellectual curiosity at home and abroad mainly focuses on the psychological category,and seldom combines intellectual curiosity with language learning.Engagement in English learning is also called "learning input",which refers to the physical and mental energy that learners put into the process of learning English.Based on the study and summary of previous research results,this paper,from the perspective of English learning,conducts an empirical study on 3005 junior and senior high school students in 9 cities and regions in China,and strives to solve three questions:1.What is the level of Chinese middle school students’ English learning curiosity?2.What is the level of English learning engagement of middle school students in China?3.What is the correlation between Chinese middle school students’ English learning curiosity and learning engagement?Through calculation and analysis of questionnaire data and interview content,the following conclusions are drawn in this study:1.The English learning curiosity of middle school students in China is at an intermediate high level.In this study,the two dimensions of curiosity as an interest(LCFI)and curiosity as a sense of deprivation(LCFD)are both at a medium to high level,and the mean value of curiosity as a sense of deprivation is slightly higher than the mean value of curiosity as an interest.2.The English learning engagement of middle school students in China is at a medium or high level.In the four dimensions of English learning engagement,the mean value from the highest to the lowest is: behavioral engagement,emotional engagement,cognitive engagement and agentic engagement.Among them,the mean value of agentic participation is less than the median value,and significantly lower than the average level of the other three dimensions.3.From the perspective of correlation analysis,it is concluded that there is a significant positive correlation between middle school students’ English learning curiosity and learning engagement.The more eager students are to learn English,the higher their participation will be.On the contrary,if middle school students’ English curiosity is weaker,their English learning participation will be lower.Curiosity,as a sense of deprivation(LCFD),was positively correlated with the four dimensions of learning engagement,with the strongest correlation with cognitive participation and the weakest correlation with active participation.Curiosity as a kind of interest(LCFI)is positively correlated with the four dimensions of learning participation,with the strongest correlation with affective participation and the weakest correlation with dynamic participation.According to the above conclusions,this study put forward the relevant suggestions: 1)in the process of high school English teaching,teachers should enrich the curriculum design and stimulate students’ interest by using different media forms and more inclusive classroom activities,allowing each student to be attracted by some certain content.2)It is imperative to take the student as the main body of the classroom,make students’ participation in classroom a normal practice,keep each student engaged,active,positive,which requires teachers to step-by-step guide the students and make them the main character in the English classroom.3)Teachers should put themselves in the perspective of students,involve the course from the perspective of students,combine students’ life and learning environment in the teaching content,get more feedback from students,and optimize and adjust the teaching content and teaching activities in time.