In this presentation, I will describe how engagement in learning English, English motivation and social factors including encouragement from family, teachers and classmate are inter-related to each other. The study was conducted during the year of 2021-2022 during the pandemic period. In the study, 326 students aged between 13 and 15 participated, and they took the online questionnaire, and they all belonged to the public junior high school in Japan. The research question was to examine 1) how social factors including family, teachers and classmates can affect English motivation and engagement in tasks. In order to investigate inter-relationships between social factors and affective factors, descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, multiple regression analyses and structural equation modeling (SEM) were examined. The hypothesized model was analyzed and all paths revealed statistical significance, and Goodness of Fit measures provided by AMOS are CFI (Comparative Fit Index)=.933, and RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation) =.075. The model showed that students who felt stronger sense of family encouragement and classmates’ encouragement are likely be motivated (.39, .24, respectively). Also students who felt stronger sense of classmate and teacher’s encouragement are likely to be engaged in tasks (.53, .40, respectively). In addition to SEM, student voices were heard to understand their favorite and unfavorable tasks in English as to identify their engagement in classroom activities. The question was asked to achieve a sustainable language learning for students in future. In this talk, an overall summary of the present study will be presented.

Authors:
Rieko Nishida, Osaka University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Rieko Nishida is a University Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at Osaka University in Japan

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