Astudy On Correlation Among English Learning Beliefs, Agentic Engagement And English Achievement Of Junior High School Students

In modern society,the focus of foreign language teaching has shifted from teacher-centered to student-centered.English learning beliefs(ELB)and agentic engagement(AE)as individual factors have attracted more and more attention of English teachers.A large number of studies have shown that English learners’ ELB and AE affect their English achievements.However,few existing studies have explored the relationship among these three variances,especially for junior high school students.In this study,the author used both quantitative and qualitative analysis to conduct a research in Yunnan Province and employed 435 junior high school students as samples to investigate the general situation of ELB and AE as well as effects of ELB and AE on English achievement.The specific research questions are:1.What is the general situation of the junior high school students’ ELB and AE?2.Are there any correlations among ELB,AE and English achievement? If so,what are they?3.What can be predictors of students’ ELB and AE to predict English achievement?4.Are there any significant differences in ELB and AE related to gender? If so,what are they?The major findings showed that:1.The study found that the junior high school students’ English learning beliefs were at a high level(M=3.53,SD=0.43).The level of belief on nature of English learning(M=3.77,SD=0.61)was the highest,and the level of belief on difficulty of English learning(M=3.15,SD=0.68)was the lowest;students’ AE was at the middle level(M=3.24,SD=0.67).Among factors of AE,the highest level of factor was the students’ self-effort(M=3.80,SD=0.83),the dimension of helping classmates with English(M=3.17,SD=1.00)was at a middle level,and the dimension of interaction with the teacher(M=2.57,SD=1.00)was at the lowest level.2.There was a significant positive correlation between junior high school students’ ELB and English achievement.The AE of junior high school students was positively correlated with their English achievement.There was a significant and positive correlation between junior middle school students’ ELB and AE.Among the three variances,junior high school students’ ELB had an effect on their English achievement,in which AE was a partial mediating factor.3.English learning aptitude and English learning motivation of junior high school students’ learning beliefs were two important predictors of their English achievement.After multiple linear regression analyses of English learning beliefs,it was found that its model was statistically significant.The factors of students’ self-effort and interaction with teachers were two important predictors of English achievement.With multiple linear regression analysis,this model was also statistically significant.4.There was no significant difference between male and female students in ELB and AE.According to the above findings,this study is beneficial for English teachers to understand the basic situation of junior high school students’ ELB and AE and to carry out English teaching on this basis and cultivate students’ ELB and AE to improve students’ English achievement.