A Study On Junior High School Students’ English Learning Engagement

In recent years,learning engagement,as an important predictor to observe students’learning process,has been studied by many scholars.The relevant researches are mostly based on three-dimension model of behavioral,emotional and cognitive engagement developed by Fredricks et al.(2004).Since Reeve and Tseng(2011)proposed that agentic engagement should be taken as one of the dimensions of learning engagement,the four-dimension model of behavioral engagement,emotional engagement,cognitive engagement and agentic engagement has been gradually accepted by scholars.However,there are few researches conducted on the four-dimension model at home and abroad,which need to be carried out urgently.Therefore,this study means to study junior high school students’English learning engagement based on the four-dimension model proposed by Reeve and Tseng(2011)to enrich the researches of learning engagement.This study takes the students in Grade 7 and Grade 8 of one junior high school in Kunming as subjects.By adopting two research methods of questionnaire survey and interview survey,this study analyzes the status quo of junior high school students’English learning engagement,demographic variable difference on English learning engagement,the relationship between English learning engagement and English academic achievement and the influencing factors of English learning engagement,consequently providing corresponding suggestions.This study mainly discusses the following four questions:(1)What is the status quo of junior high school students’English learning engagement?(2)Are there any differences among demographic variables like gender,grade and English learning background(time to start learning English)?(3)What is the relationship between junior high school students’English learning engagement and their English academic achievement?(4)What are the influencing factors of junior high school students’English learning engagement?The results are summarized as follows.Firstly,junior high school students’English learning engagement is relatively high,which is higher than the mean of 3.5.To be more specific,behavioral engagement ranks the highest;cognitive engagement follows;agentic engagement ranks the third and emotional engagement ranks the lowest.Secondly,students in Grade 7 are significantly higher than students in Grade 8 concerning behavioral engagement,emotional engagement,cognitive engagement and agentic engagement.With regard to gender difference,the engagement level of females is higher than that of males on behavioral engagement and emotional engagement,while the engagement level of males is higher than that of females on cognitive engagement and agentic engagement.Nevertheless,there is no significant difference found between the two genders.Given English learning background,generally speaking,the learning engagement of students who started to learn English before Grade 1 of primary school or students who started to learn English at Grade 1 of primary school are significantly higher than that of the students who started to learn English at Grade3 of primary school.Thirdly,the strength of the total English learning engagement and that of the four dimensions of English learning engagement of junior high school students are significantly and positively correlated with their English academic achievement.Behavioral engagement,emotional engagement and agentic engagement can predict students’English academic achievement.Behavioral engagement is the most important predictor of English academic achievement(adj R~2=0.184).Fourthly,main factors affecting students’English learning engagement include personal factors such as learning attitude,learning interest,learning appetite,learning motivation and time to start learning English,peer factors such as peer support,peer refusal,peer affection and peer imitation,environmental factors like school atmosphere,teacher-student relationship,teaching styles,teaching methods,parents’supports and parents’attitude.Social factor like social opinions towards English has no influence on students’English learning engagement.