A Study On The Correlation Between Junior High School Students’ L2MSS And Behavioral Engagement In English Learning

Learning engagement has acquired popularity among researchers,and behavioral engagement,a crucial element of learning engagement,has increasingly become the focus of study.In practical instruction,teachers must concentrate on how to increase students’ behavioral engagement.Current research focuses on the definition,measurement,and influencing factors of behavioral engagement.Numerous domestic and foreign studies have demonstrated the importance of motivation in influencing behavioral engagement.However,there is limited research in junior high school that incorporates behavioral engagement,motivation for a second language(L2),and English discipline.Therefore,in order to provide educators with appropriate teaching strategies to improve students’ learning behavior,it is essential to thoroughly investigate the correlation between behavioral engagement and L2 motivation of junior high school students.The Second Language Motivational Self System(L2MSS)proposed by D?rnyei(2005)has been viewed as a novel perspective on motivation research.and it contains three components(Ideal L2 Self,Ought-to L2 Self and L2 Learning Experience).With this latest theory,the present study tends to explore:(1)Are there any differences in behavioral engagement and L2 MSS in terms of different genders and different grades? If yes,what are the differences?(2)What is the correlation between L2 MSS and behavioral engagement in English learning?Quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted in this thesis.A questionnaire survey on 1295 students from a junior high school in Guangzhou,Guangdong Province was conducted.The data were collected and put into SPSS 25.0.Independent-samples t test and One-way ANOVA analysis are used to explore the differences in behavioral engagement and L2 MSS in terms of genders and grades,Pearson correlation analysis and Multiple linear regression analysis are adopted to analyze the correlations between behavioral engagement in English learning and L2 MSS.12 students participated voluntarily in the semi-structured interviews for supplement.The results reveal that:(1)There are significant differences in behavioral engagement and L2 MSS in terms of different genders and different grades.Specifically,girls have higher behavioral engagement than boys,and students in Grade 9 have higher behavioral engagement than students in Grade 8 and Grade 7.Among the three components of L2 MSS,girls have a clearer Ideal L2 Self and a better L2 Learning Experience than boys,while there is no significant difference in Ought-to L2 Self between boys and girls.Students in Grade 9 have the highest scores in all three components of L2 MSS,followed by students in Grade 8 and Grade7.(2)There is a positive correlation between L2 MSS and behavioral engagement in English learning.Among three components of L2 MSS,Ideal L2 Self makes the strongest contribution to explaining the variance in behavioral engagement,followed by L2 Learning Experience and Ought-to L2 Self,respectively.Based on the findings,teaching strategies can be obtained from the following aspects:adopting the six-step approach of boosting motivation put out by D?rnyei and Hadfield(2014)to foster and develop students’ Ideal L2 Self;making good use of the Ought-to L2 Self through setting appropriate goals for students and give them praise and encouragement in due time;optimizing students L2 Learning Experience by establishing a positive teacher-student supportive relationship and harmonious classroom atmosphere.In addition,during the processes of motivating Ideal L2 Self,optimizing L2 Learning Experience and making good use of Ought-to L2 Self,corresponding countermeasures are proposed for different genders and different grades in this thesis.