Language Learner Engagement in Secondary Education: A Quantitative Study of the Constructs and the Relationship Between Achievement and Teacher Support

抄録

　　The purpose of this study was to develop a scale of language learner engagement consisting of five constructs (i.e., behavioral, cognitive, emotional, agentic, and social) and to examine whether students’ level of engagement had a relationship between their achievement or teacher support. Participants were Japanese junior high school (JHS) students studying English in an EFL context. First, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of 639 JHS students’ responses resulted in a 16- item scale with robust psychometric properties with four distinct factors: behavioral-cognitive, emotional, agentic, and social. Second, Pearson’s correlations, structural equation modeling, and comparison of rankings between groups demonstrated that emotional engagement had a particularly significant impact on learner achievement, and that there was a close relationship between teachers’ support for learner engagement and students’ actual engagement. Based on these results, practical suggestions to encourage learner engagement and prospects for further research are discussed.