A Study On The Correlation Between English Teacher Autonomy Support, Students’ Learning Engagement And Students’ English Achievement In A Junior High School

Students’ engagement in learning plays an important role in second language learning.For junior high school students,their learning engagement in English learning has an important impact on their academic performance,so it should be paid attention to.At the same time,as the facilitator of students’ learning and development,English teachers should provide autonomy support to stimulate students’ learning initiative and enthusiasm,and promote the construction of a good relationship between teachers and students.In recent years,students’ learning engagement and teacher autonomy support have been concerned and studied by scholars,but there are few researches on the correlation between them under specific disciplines.This study takes junior high school students as the research subjects,explores their English learning engagement and perceived teacher autonomy support.It raises the following three research questions:1.What is the status quo of English teacher autonomy support,students’ English learning engagement and English achievement in junior high school?2.What is the correlation between English teacher autonomy support,students’ English learning engagement and English achievement in junior high school?3.What factors influence junior high school English teacher autonomy support and students’ English learning engagement in English learning?This study adopted a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods.The research subjects are 175 students in the eighth grade of a middle school.Questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview were used to investigate junior high school English teacher autonomy support and students’ English learning engagement.SPSS 22.0 was used to conduct descriptive statistics and correlation analysis of the data,and the results of semi-structured interview were analyzed.The conclusions are as follows:1.Junior high school students’ perception level of autonomy support from English teachers is above the medium level,and their level of engagement in English learning is at the medium level.In terms of gender difference,there is no significant difference between male and female students in the perception of teacher autonomy support.There is a significant difference between male and female students’ emotional engagement,and female students’ emotional engagement is higher than that of male students.In terms of the age difference,students of different ages have no significant differences in their perception of teacher autonomy support.In terms of students’ English learning engagement,there is a difference between 14 and15-year-old students’ English learning concentration degree in behavioral engagement,and 13 and 15-year-old students’ English learning value identification in emotional engagement.2.In English learning,there is a linear positive correlation between junior high school English teacher autonomy support and students’ English learning achievement;There is a positive correlation between students’ English learning engagement and students’ English achievement.There is also a strong positive linear correlation between junior high school English teacher autonomy support and students’ engagement in English learning.Junior high school English teacher autonomy support and students’ interest,persistence and diligence in English learning engagement have positive predictive effects on students’ English achievement.3.Factors influencing junior high school teacher autonomy support include the teacher-student relationship,teachers’ personality characteristics,and the school’s work arrangement for teachers.Factors that affect students’ engagement in English learning include students’ personality factors,their relationship with teachers and classmates,and the learning atmosphere of the school and the classroom.According to the above results,this study puts forward some feasible teaching suggestions :1.Schools can train teachers to improve their awareness of teacher autonomy support,improve the level of democratic management,and give teachers space to develop their teaching ability.2.Teachers may stimulate students’ subjective initiative by creating a positive and democratic classroom learning environment;Teachers can create rich choices to meet the needs of students;Teachers should also fully respect students,establish a good relationship between teachers and students;Teachers need to combine relevant theories to improve students’ cognitive level and application ability.By improving junior high school English teacher autonomy support level and students’ engagement in English learning,teachers aim to improve students’ English learning achievement.