A Comparative Study On The Differences Between Novice Teachers And Expert Teachers In Junior High School English Classroom Environment And Students’ Learning Engagement

English classroom environment and students’ learning engagement play an important role in foreign language teaching and learning.But previous studies have focused on the relationship between classroom environment of university students and students’ learning engagement,or the relationship between learning engagement and academic achievements.Therefore,this study focuses on comparing the differences between novice teachers and expert teachers in junior high school English classroom environment and students’ learning engagement and analyzes the reasons that cause the differences.This provides a bit of insights for future researches and stimulates future scholars to conduct deeper researches and discussions in this topic.In addition,some suggestions are made for teachers’ teaching and students’ learning by comparing the differences in English classroom environment and students’ learning engagement.It enables novice teachers and expert teachers to learn from each other in different aspects to create a better English classroom environment to promote students’ learning engagement.The main methods of the study are questionnaire,interview and classroom observation.This study involves questionnaires and eight classroom observations of 266 students in four classes in the second year of junior high school in X city and interviews two novice teachers and two students in their classes and two expert teachers and two students in their classes.The paper is based on Moos’ Human Environment Theory,Rogers’ Humanistic Theory and Dewey’s “Learning by Doing” to answer the following questions.First,are there differences in English classroom environment between novice teachers and expert teachers in junior high schools? What are they? Second,are there differences in students’ learning engagement between novice teachers and expert teachers in junior high schools? What are they? Third,what are the reasons that cause the differences in English classroom environment and students’ learning engagement between novice teachers and expert teachers in junior high schools? In this study,some results are analyzed through 231 classroom environment questionnaires,255 students’ learning engagement questionnaires by SPSS 24.0 and the results of interviews with four English teachers and four students,so we get the following conclusions.First,there are significant differences of English classroom environment between novice teachers and expert teachers,and expert teachers’ classrooms outperform novice teachers’ classroom.There are significant differences in teacher support,task orientation,class order and students’ cohesiveness of English classroom environment,and expert teachers’ classrooms outperform novice teachers’ classrooms;there is a significant difference in cooperation of English classroom environment and novice teachers’ classrooms outperform expert teachers’ classrooms.Secondly,there are significant differences of students’ learning engagement between novice teachers and expert teachers.Novice teachers’ classes outperform expert teachers’ classes in terms of behavioral engagement;expert teachers’ classes outperform novice teachers’ classes in terms of emotional engagement.Thirdly,the reasons resulting in differences in classroom environment are teachers’ professional level,teaching experience,the establishment of teacher’s prestige and different forms of organizing classroom activities;the reasons resulting in differences in students’ learning engagement are students’ learning goals,support from teachers and different forms of organizing class.This study provides some suggestions for teachers’ teaching and junior high school students’ learning by comparing differences in English classroom environment and students’ learning engagement between novice teachers and expert teachers in junior high schools.Novice teachers and expert teachers should learn from each other in different aspects of English classroom environment in junior high school and try to create a better English classroom environment to improve junior high school students’ learning engagement.Students in junior high school should ask questions,interact with teachers actively and clarify their learning goals in a good classroom environment,in order to improve their learning engagement.