| Learning engagement is a crucial predictor of the students’ learning ability,which is positively correlated with academic performance.It is also of great significance to measure the teaching quality and students’ development.In recent years,a growing number of scholars in our country focus on learning engagement,but most of them are concerned about college students,whereas the research on middle school students is not mature enough,and little is known regarding the engagement of county-level senior high school students.In addition,most of the studies concentrate on the students’ general learning engagement,while lacking research on specific disciplines,especially English.Based on this situation,the purpose of this study is to investigate the overall status of county-level senior high school students’ English learning engagement(hereinafter referred to as ELE),explore whether there are significant differences with regard to students’ demographic variables and some predictive variables related to ELE,and discover what are the main factors that affect the students’ ELE.Combining quantitative questionnaires with qualitative interviews,this study has conducted a questionnaire survey on 611 senior high students from Luxi Senior High School in Santai County,Sichuan Province,and 5 senior high school English teachers and 18 students have participated in the interview survey.The research questions are as follows:(1)What is the status quo of county-level senior high school students’ ELE?(2)Are there any differences in ELE among the county-level senior high school students with respect to demographic variables,such as gender,grade,family location,liberal arts and science? If so,what are the differences? Are there any other predictors of ELE,such as self-perceived English level,English learning motivation,English learning adaptability,classroom anxiety,and the frequency of using computers,mobile phones or online platforms?(3)What are the main factors that affect county-level senior high school students’ ELE?In this study,SPSS22.0 has been adopted to analyze the questionnaire data,and the interview results of teachers and students have been analyzed.The following conclusions have been obtained:(1)The students’ overall ELE is at a medium level,which is reflected in a level above the average in behavioral engagement and emotional engagement,while the cognitive engagement is at a moderate level.In terms of behavioral engagement,the students are highly concentrated in class and try their best to complete school assignments,but they are not persistent enough in the face of learning difficulties.For emotional engagement,the students are interested and confident in English learning,as well as having a clear awareness of the value of English learning.As regards cognitive engagement,the students sometimes use cognitive strategies,but seldom use meta-cognitive strategies.(2)There are significant differences in gender,grade,and family location of the county-level senior high school students’ ELE,but no significant differences are found between the liberal arts students and science students.First,for gender differences,the girls’ overall ELE,behavioral engagement,emotional engagement,and cognitive engagement are significantly higher than the boys’.Second,there is no grade-related difference in the overall ELE,behavioral and cognitive engagement,but there is a significant difference in emotional engagement.The Grade 3 students’ confidence and value cognition in English learning are significantly higher than those in the Grade 1 and Grade 2.Next,for the difference in family location,the urban students’ overall ELE,behavioral,emotional,and cognitive engagement are significantly higher than those from the rural areas.Compared with the students in the rural areas,the students in the urban areas have more perseverance,efforts,interest,and confidence in English learning,as well as using meta-cognitive strategies and cognitive strategies more frequently.Moreover,the mean values report that the liberal arts students’ overall ELE,behavioral and cognitive engagement are slightly higher than the science students,whereas the science students’ emotional engagement is somewhat higher than the liberal arts students,but not statistically significant.Finally,English learning motivation,self-perceived English level,and English learning adaptability can significantly predict the students’ ELE.(3)The factors that affect the county-level senior high school students’ ELE consist of teacher factors,students’ individual factors,peer factors,environmental factors,and family factors,but environmental factors and family factors have less influence than the first three types of factors.In light of the above results,this study puts forward some suggestions and countermeasures for English teachers,students,the government,and school administrators in order to improve the ELE of county-level senior high school students. |
