| During the COVID-19 pandemic,China decided to implement online education,and over200 million students in elementary and secondary schools participated in online language learning.This was the first time that a large number of teenagers had participated in a largescale emergency online teaching and learning,known as emergency remote teaching.However,at present,it is not clear about students’ perceptions and attitudes toward this new teaching mode,and there are limited studies on the large-scale participation of high school students in an online English learning context.It remains unknown whether students will be able to effectively engage in synchronous online English courses.Both in domestic and oversea studies,many scholars have stressed the significance of learning engagement,however,it is worth noting that the topic of student engagement has not received enough attention in the field of foreign language teaching research.Therefore,based on the status quo and self-determination theory,this paper attempts to explore the main factors affecting Chinese high school students’ learning engagement in synchronous online English courses mainly from the perspective of basic psychological needs.This thesis focuses on the following three research questions: 1.What are the general profiles of Chinese high school students’ basic psychological needs,and engagement in synchronous online English courses? 2.How do psychological factors,that is,basic psychological needs(SDT variables)affect Chinese high school students’ engagement in synchronous online English courses? 3.What are individual and contextual factors influencing Chinese high school students’ engagement in synchronous online English courses?The study used mixed-method research,which integrates quantitative and qualitative data.In the current study,233 Chinese high school students between the ages of 15 and 18 took part.The collection of quantitative data was mainly done through the distribution of online questionnaires.The qualitative data for this paper was mainly collected through semi-structured interviews.The interviewees were five high school students(3 male and 2 female)who had taken synchronous online English courses during the pandemic.The average length for these five interviews is 21 minutes.Based on the self-determination theory and pertinent literature,this study aims to develop a hypothetical model to answer related research questions.SPSS20.0,and partial least squares(PLS)were used for quantitative data analysis,and thematic analysis was used for qualitative data.The findings indicate that,firstly,Chinese high school students’ basic psychological needs are generally satisfied and they perceive themselves to be behaviorally,cognitively,emotionally and socially engaged in synchronous online English courses.Secondly,three basic psychological needs could predict students’ four dimensions of online engagement,and perceived competence is confirmed to be the strongest factor in predicting students’ engagement.Thirdly,qualitative data suggest that social interaction is a crucial element influencing students’ engagement in online English learning.Besides,the sense of distance leads to a weak learning atmosphere in the synchronous online English course,which leads to less emotional engagement and even relatively negative behavioral engagement on students,resulting in a decline in the efficiency of online English learning.Moreover,course design is also an important factor in learner engagement.Online synchronous English courses require a more mature instructional design and more interesting social interaction sessions.The study has some theoretical implications.The model proposed in this paper confirms the validity of basic psychological need theory in improving learner engagement in the synchronous online English learning environment and it further confirms that self-determination theory can be effectively applied to foreign language teaching research and practice.This study has also enriched the literature on learner engagement in foreign language teaching from a positive psychology perspective to some extent.In the meantime,it provides some practical implications for the amelioration of synchronous online English courses. |
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