A Study On The Effect Of L2 Motivational Self System On College English Students’ Engagement

In recent years,research related to student engagement has been producing new academic results in the field of foreign language teaching,and exploring the factors that affect student engagement has become a hot research topic.Student engagement is a key variable in measuring English learning ability and plays an important role in improving learners’ English achievement.Although there are studies on the influence of student engagement from the perspective of motivation,few studies have investigated the deep relationship between the two.And the role of emotional and cognitive engagement in student engagement has not received enough attention.Therefore,this study will examine the effect of L2 motivational self system on student engagement.This study used self-reported questionnaires and constructed a structural equation model to examine the influence of L2 motivational self system on student engagement among 265 non-English major college students in north of China.The study focused on answering the following questions:(1)What is the overall level of college English learners’ L2 motivational self system and student engagement?(2)What is the relationship of college English learners between L2 motivational self system and student engagement?(3)Is there a mediating role of emotional and cognitive engagement between L2 motivational self system and behavioral engagement?In this study,descriptive analysis,correlation analysis,and multiple regression analysis were conducted on the questionnaire data using SPSS26.0,and a mediation model was constructed using Amos24.0.It was found that:(1)College English learners had relatively high levels of L2 motivational self system and student engagement.(2)College English learners’ L2 motivational self system and student engagement were correlated,and all dimensions of college English learners’ L2 motivational self system had significant predictive effects on student engagement.(3)Emotional engagement and cognitive engagement played mediating roles between L2 motivational self system and behavioral engagement.This study shows that L2 motivational self system has an influential role on student engagement in the process of English language learning,validating previous findings on the relationship between the two and discovering a chain mediating relationship between L2 motivational self system and student engagement,which has certain theoretical and practical implications.Therefore,teachers should improve the level of L2 motivation by actively adjusting teaching strategies and other ways,and give full play to the chain mediating role of emotional and cognitive engagement,so as to improve student engagement,enhance learners’ English proficiency and improve the quality of English teaching.