A Study On The Relationships Among Senior High School Students’ Motivational Beliefs,Learning Engagement,and English Achievements

How to improve senior high school students’ English achievements has always been the focus of studies and research.However,front-line English teachers often focus solely on grades and ignore the motivation and engagement of students,which makes it tough for them to obtain satisfying results in English.It is found that senior high school students’ motivational beliefs and learning engagement are closely related to their English achievements.Nonetheless,the specific influencing mechanism among the three and the role of learning engagement in motivational beliefs and English achievements are rarely explored.Research on these issues needs further discussion by scholars,which provides the possibility and necessity for the writing of this paper.Motivational beliefs in this paper can be divided into four dimensions: growth mindset,interest,utility,and self-efficacy.Learning engagement encompasses behavioral engagement,emotional engagement,and cognitive engagement.Senior high school students are the ones who need the most attention as they are faced with huge pressure coming from every aspect,thus it is necessary to find ways to help them get better grades in their English learning.This study chose 343 senior high school students in Chongqing NO.1 Middle School of University City as the research participants of questionnaires,along with twelve students and three teachers as the objects of the follow-up interviews.This research mainly answers the following three questions:(1)What is the current condition of senior high students’ English learning motivational beliefs,engagement,and achievements?(2)What are the relationships among motivational beliefs,learning engagement,and English achievements,and what is the specific influence model?(3)What are the primary factors affecting senior high school students’ English learning motivational beliefs,engagement,and achievements?According to data analysis and discussion results,it is found that:(1)Senior high school students have moderate levels of motivational beliefs and learning engagement,and there are no significant differences in them across genders.(2)In addition to utility,motivational beliefs and learning engagement are both related to senior high school students’ English achievements,and both have significant effects on their English scores.Thereinto,apart from the direct influence on English achievements,growth mindset and interest can also indirectly affect English performance through behavioral engagement and emotional engagement respectively,while cognitive engagement does not act as a mediator in any relationship.(3)Teachers’ expectation,peer pressure,and effectual learning strategies are the objective factors while learning interest,self-confidence,and learning attitude are the subjective factors that affect senior high school students’ motivational beliefs,learning engagement,and English achievements.Therefore,based on the above findings,this study puts forward the following suggestions for front-line English teachers:(1)Transform students’ external motivation into internal motivation and improve their interest in learning.(2)Provide students with positive feedback and encouragement to help build their self-confidence.(3)Help students master effectual learning methods and strategies to improve their learning efficiency and achievements.