A Study Of Student Engagement In English Learning Of Junior High School Students

Student engagement is a necessary condition for effective learning.One of student engagement concepts is defined as “highly active and enjoyable emotional,behavioral,and cognitive participation in academic activities(Balwant,2017).” Since 90 s,the research of student engagement has involved different aspects,such as behavioral engagement,emotional engagement and cognitive engagement.These three aspects gradually become the basic structure of student engagement.This study explores the status quo of student engagement in English learning and the association between student engagement and their academic achievement with a view to enriching the research content of student engagement,exploring the learning engagement of junior high school students in the specific subject,and to providing supportive data for future theoretical research.This study investigates 281 junior high school students from three different grades.Through qualitative and quantitative methods,this paper analyzes the status quo of students' engagement in English learning.The inventory of student engagement in English learning of junior high school students was revised from Professor Kong Qiping's(2003)scale about student engagement in the mathematics.The inventory is divided into three dimensions: emotional engagement,behavioral engagement and cognitive engagement.After testing the reliability and validity of the inventory,a formal data collection was conducted.The study was supplemented by interviews with six students from three grades.The purpose of this article is to answer the following two questions: Question 1: What is the status quo of student engagement in English learning in junior high school? Question 2: What is the association between student engagement in English learning and students' academic achievement?The results show that: Firstly,junior high school students have a good student engagement in English learning.Students generally have a high sense of anxiety.There is a significant difference between students' performance in class and after class.Students are better performed in class than after class.The enthusiasm of students to participate in English activities is at a very low level.Students lack the ability to formulate English learning plans,and some students do not have suitable English learning methods.Males have the lowest level of cognitive engagement,while females have the lowest level of behavioral engagement.But the overall level of female student engagement in the three sub-dimensions is higher than that of male.Among the three grades,the level of student engagement in English learning in the seventh grade was significantly higher than that in the eighth and ninth grades.Secondly,students' emotional,cognitive and behavioral engagement are positively correlated with their academic achievement.The higher the student engagement is in English learning,the better academic achievements they will make.Among the three dimensions,students' emotional engagement in English learning is most closely related to their academic achievements.According to the results of the study,this study puts forward the following six suggestions:(1)Setting up a correct outlook on examination to reduce students' sense of anxiety.(2)Increasing student engagement in English learning after class and providing rich and colorful after-class English activities to promote students' interest.(3)Urging students to make plans for English learning and encouraging students to explore their own suitable English learning methods.(4)Male students should increase cognitive engagement in English learning,and attention to their engagement should be strengthened with grades.(5)Female students should increase behavioral engagement,and more attention should be paid to student engagement of female students in Grade 8.(6)Providing students with more emotional support and improve their emotional engagement in English learning.