Research On Academic English Reading Engagement For Postgraduate Students

When conducting scientific research,postgraduates must engage in a substantial amount of academic reading to investigate the overall situation and latest developments in their research field,thereby identifying the research gap based on what has been studied in related fields and gradually refining the research questions.The number of English literatures published annually in relevant professional journals has increased dramatically.However,the majority of non-English major postgraduates have poor academic English reading skills with comparatively low academic English reading efficiency.Consequently,the purpose of this study is to investigate the postgraduates’ academic English reading activities by exploring the four dimensions of academic English reading engagement.The main research questions:(1)What is the general situation of postgraduates’ AERE?(2)Are there any differences in AERE among different groups?(3)Do the four dimensions of AERE influence each other? What are the influence paths? Statistic software SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 21.0 are used to examine the first two research questions and hypothesis.The structural equation model(SEM)is used to explore the interaction mechanism among the dimensions of AERE and analyze the influence path.The major findings of this study are:(1)The overall AERE for postgraduates is at a medium level,among which the cognitive engagement level is the highest and the emotional engagement level is the lowest;(2)There are differences in the level of AERE in different groups;there is a significant difference in AERE among postgraduates at different university levels.The engagement level of 985 universities is higher than that of ordinary universities;there are significant differences in AERE among different grades;there are significant differences in various dimensions among the first-year,second-year and third-year graduate students,and the level of engagement of the second-year graduate students is higher than that of the other two grades;there are significant differences in AERE among different professional categories,and the level of engagement of postgraduates in humanities is higher than that of the other two professional categories;there is a significant difference in AERE among postgraduates with different degrees of professional satisfaction.The higher degree of professional satisfaction,the higher level of academic English reading investment;(3)The four dimensions of AERE influence each other.Behavioral engagement is directly influenced by cognitive engagement,emotional engagement,and social engagement.Cognitive engagement has a direct and significant effect on behavioral engagement.Emotional engagement has a direct and significant effect on cognitive engagement and behavioral engagement.Social engagement has direct and significant positive effects on behavioral engagement,cognitive engagement,and emotional engagement,and can also have an indirect effect on cognitive engagement through emotional engagement as a mediator.Based on the findings above,this study implies that AERE can affect academic English reading efficiency to some extent,which is conducive to improving postgraduates’ academic English reading ability or skills,developing their academic literacy through innovative models,and enhancing postgraduates’ learning outcome in their academic English courses.