A Study Of The Correlation Between Junior Two Students’ Emotional Engagement In English Learning And English Achievement In Urban And Rural Middle Schools

The process of learning a foreign language is complex,dynamic,and multidimensional,and it is influenced by many factors.Emotional engagement is one of the factors.It is meaningful to investigate the situation of urban and rural middle school students’ emotional engagement in English learning(herein after referred to as EEEL)and the relationship between EEEL and their English achievement respectively.In order to understand the current situation of urban and rural middle school students’ EEEL as well as the correlation between EEEL and their English achievement,the author selects 430 students from both urban and rural middle schools as the research subjects.Questionnaire investigation and interview are employed to collect the data related to the above students’ EEEL and English achievement.SPSS 22.0 is used as the tool of data analysis.The research questions are as follows:(1)What are the current situations of Junior Two students’ EEEL in urban and rural middle schools respectively? Are there any EEEL differences between urban and rural middle school students?(2)What are the correlations between EEEL and the English achievement of Junior Two students in urban and rural middle schools respectively?(3)In what way does EEEL differ in predicting the English achievement of Junior Two students in urban and rural middle schools?The research finds that,there are some similarities and nuances in the students’ EEEL.The similarity lies in that they show similar levels in the five dimensions of EEEL(i.e.―interest in English learning‖,―confidence in English learning‖,―value of English learning‖,―identification with teacher‖ and ―satisfaction with school‖).Most of the students believe that English learning is valuable,but their ―confidence in English learning‖ and ―interest in English learning‖ are weak.In addition,they do not have a strong sense of ―identification with teacher‖ and are not highly satisfied with their schools.The subtle differences are also reflected.Urban middle school students show slightly higher levels than rural middle school students in terms of ―value of English learning‖,―identification with teacher‖,and ―satisfaction with school‖.In addition,rural middle school students report a higher level than urban middle school students in terms of ―confidence in English learning‖.From the perspective of the relationship between the overall EEEL and English achievement,the analysis of the results of questionnaire investigation finds a significant and positive correlation between EEEL and English achievement.Specifically,there is a moderate correlation between EEEL and English achievement among urban middle school students and a low correlation among rural middle school students.Looking at the five dimensions of EEEL,urban and rural middle school students’ English achievement is significantly and positively correlated with all dimensions of EEEL.Among the five dimensions,―confidence in English learning‖ comprises the strongest relationship with English achievement.In addition,the correlation between the five dimensions of EEEL and the English achievement of urban middle school students is higher than the correlation between the five dimensions of EEEL and the English achievement of rural middle school students.Furthermore,the interview data indicate that besides EEEL,other factors such as―memory and recitation ability‖,―effort and engagement put into the English learning process‖,―learning method‖,―anxiety‖,and ―English foundation‖ are the factors that also affect the students’ English achievement.This may explain why there is only a moderate and low correlation between urban and rural middle school students’ EEEL and their English achievement respectively.Through regression analysis,it is shown that among the five dimensions of EEEL,―confidence in English learning‖ is the only significant predictor of English achievement,and it has a stronger predictive effect on the English achievement of urban middle school students.