The Relationship Between Achievement Goal Orientation And English Learning Engagement Of Junior High School Students

Achievement goal orientation(AGO)refers to the learning goals set by learners and corresponding reasons,as well as the evaluation criteria related to their own success or failure,competence and performance.The relationship between AGO and learners’English learning engagement has attracted a lot of research attention recently.However,in previous studies,the four-dimensional structure scale added with mastery-approach goals was rarely applied;in addition,studies have not reached a consistent conclusion on performance-avoidance goals.Given that,this study is based on achievement goal theory,adopting the four-dimensional achievement goal framework proposed by Elliot&McGregor(2001)to explore the relationship between achievement goal orientation and English learning engagement of junior high school students,and puts forward the following research questions:(1)What is the current level of junior high school students’ Achievement Goal Orientation?(2)What is the current level of junior high school students’ English learning engagement?(3)What is the relationship between junior high school students’ Achievement Goal Orientation and English Learning engagement?In this study,the Achievement Goals Questionnaire,the English Learning Engagement Questionnaire filled in by 269 sophomores from a junior high school in Jiangsu Province were collected;through Pearson correlation analysis and Multiple Linear Regression,this study discusses the correlation between achievement goal orientation and English learning engagement of junior high school students and the predictive power of the former to the latter.The findings are as follows:First of all,participants’ overall achievement goal orientation showed the highest mastery-approach goal orientation in four sub-dimensions,followed by performanceapproach goal orientation,mastery-avoidance goal orientation,and finally the comparatively low performance-avoidance goal orientation.Secondly,their overall English learning engagement showed a high level in the four sub-dimensions,namely,behavioral engagement,emotional engagement,cognitive engagement and agentic engagement.As for the last question,Pearson correlation analysis showed that mastery-approach goals were positively correlated with holistic English learning engagement;masteryavoidance goals were only negatively correlated with agentic engagement;performanceapproach goals were also positively correlated with overall English learning engagement,but the correlation coefficient was weaker than that with mastery-approach goals;there was a significant negative correlation between performance-avoidance goals and the whole English learning engagement.The results of Multiple Linear Regression showed that the mastery-approach goals could positively predict all the four aspects of English learning engagement;mastery-avoidance goals could only negatively predict agentic engagement;performance-approach goals could positively predict behavioral engagement but they were the negative predictor of agentic engagement;performance-avoidance goals negatively predicted behavioral engagement and agentic engagement.On the fundamental of the findings,this study put forward several suggestions respectively from the perspective of teachers,students and schools to cultivate students to form the positive mastery-approach goal orientation.With benign learning motivation,students’ English learning engagement can be promoted.Ultimately,they can achieve ideal academic performance in the English subject.