A Study On The Impact Of Senior High School Students’ Perceived Classroom Environment On Student Engagement In English Learning

Student engagement,which can reflect students’ real learning state and predict their learning outcomes,is considered to be an essential prerequisite for improving English teaching quality and the key to successful language learning.With the educational concepts such as “student-centered education” “to give full play to students’ learning initiative”being put forward,scholars show growing interest in how to effectively facilitate student engagement in learning.Student engagement has become one of the hottest topics in the field of education both abroad and at home.Senior high school stage is a critical period for students to build up a solid foundation for their future development.And the classroom environment,as the main place for students’ learning and a crucial external factor influencing students’ learning,plays an important role in promoting student engagement.However,studies on the influencing factors of student engagement mainly focused on students’ internal factors,and less attention was paid to the external factors such as classroom environment.Additionally,previous studies on the relationship between student engagement and classroom environment were mainly conducted in the context of the general class rather than specific subject areas.The impact of classroom environment on student engagement in English learning context is still under-researched,and the research participants are mainly college students.In order to bridge the research gap,the current study selected 130 Senior 2 students in a senior high school in Wuhan as research participants to investigate the impact of senior high school students’ perceived classroom environment on student engagement in English learning.Mixed methods including questionnaires and interviews were adopted to collect the research data.Effective implications were provided to promote student engagement in English learning from the perspective of classroom environment.This study addresses the following questions:1)What is the current situation of senior high school students’ perceived classroom environment and student engagement in English learning?2)What is the impact of senior high school students’ perceived classroom environment on student engagement in English learning?The research results are displayed as follows:1)Senior high school students’ student engagement in English learning is at a moderate level.Among the four dimensions,students’ behavioral engagement reaches the highest degree,followed by social engagement and cognitive engagement,and emotional engagement is at a comparatively low level.There exists significant gender difference in student engagement in English learning,and female students perform better in behavioral engagement and emotional engagement than male students.Additionally,senior high school students’ perceived classroom environment in English learning is at an uppermoderate level.Among the five dimensions,teacher support reaches the highest degree,followed by class order,task orientation and cooperation,and student cohesiveness is at a relatively low level.As for the gender difference in students’ perceived classroom environment,female students perceive a more positive classroom environment than male students.Specifically,female students’ perceptions of teacher support and task orientation are better than that of male students.2)Senior high school students’ perceived classroom environment has a significant and positive impact on student engagement in English learning.Specifically,among the five dimensions of classroom environment,teacher support,cooperation,student cohesiveness and task orientation can significantly predict student engagement in English learning and have varied impact on different dimensions of student engagement.Based on the research results,the current study provides some invaluable implications for senior high school students and EFL teachers in terms of creating a positive and supportive classroom environment,so as to effectively improve student engagement in English learning.