Language Learner Engagement During Speaking Tasks: A Longitudinal Study

By S. Aubrey, Jim King, Haydab Almukhaild. RELC Journal : A Journal of Language Teaching and Research in Southeast Asia, 2020

155 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Learner engagement is crucial for ensuring the quality of learning experiences, and yet the study of ‘task engagement’ has received relatively little empirical attention in the language education domain. This article reports on a study exploring the factors contributing to learners’ engagement and disengagement during task performance in an English as a foreign language classroom. Thirty-seven learners performed 10 different speaking tasks implemented over a 10-week period in a Japanese university task-supported classroom. The participants’ engagement was measured using a post-task questionnaire on perceived levels of anxiety, confidence, focus and desire to speak. Learners’ written self-report reflections revealed complementary in-depth qualitative data about the underlying factors behind their engagement or otherwise during speaking tasks. The results revealed a variety of learner-level, lesson-level, task-level and post-task-level factors contributing to learners’ engagement and disengagement in tasks. Findings indicate that certain task features such as the nature and purpose of the tasks, task repetition, familiar and easier task topics led to successful engagement. On the other hand, lack of social cohesion and motivational baggage were reported as primary factors in determining learners’ silences and disengagement in tasks. The authors offer pedagogical implications for teachers on how speaking tasks can be better implemented to enhance engagement in foreign language classrooms.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Education, Language and Linguistics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5046dce782566b4f1e4f502e1c8a4e0b35c98f42

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

1. Joseph P. Vitta
2. Ali H. Al-Hoorie
3. J. Wu
4. Phil Hiver

In Education

1. Ali H. Al-Hoorie
2. Phil Hiver
3. Joseph P. Vitta
4. J. Wu

In Language and Linguistics

1. Phil Hiver
2. Joseph P. Vitta
3. Ali H. Al-Hoorie
4. J. Wu
5. Mostafa Papi

Citations in the corpus

• Engagement in language learning: A systematic review of 20 years of research methods and definitions (2021, background): “Although research investigating developmental trajectories of engagement remains rare (e.g. Aubrey et al., 2020), this characteristic provides a promising point of direct action for educators as it suggests that learners can become more engaged with the right kinds of intrapersonal and contextual…”