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Student Engagement in the Language Classroom
Editors: Phil Hiver, Ali H. Al-Hoorie, and Sarah Mercer
Cite as:
Hiver, P., Al-Hoorie, A. H., & Mercer, S. (Eds.). (2021). Student engagement in the
language classroom. Multilingual Matters.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Richard M. Ryan
1. Introduction
Phil Hiver, Sarah Mercer, & Ali Al-Hoorie
Part 1: Conceptual Chapters
2. Engagement and Companion Constructs in Language Learning: Conceptualizing Learners’
Involvement in the L2 Classroom
Yuan Sang and Phil Hiver
3. Engagement With Language (EWL) in Relation to Form-Focused Versus Meaning-Focused
Teaching and Learning
Agneta M.L. Svalberg
4. Research on Learner Engagement with Written (Corrective) Feedback: Insights and Issues
Ye Han and Xuesong (Andy) Gao
5. Measuring L2 Engagement: A Review of Issues and Applications
Shiyao (Ashlee) Zhou, Phil Hiver, and Ali H. Al-Hoorie
Part II: Empirical Studies
6. Exploring Connections between Classroom Environment and Engagement in the Foreign
Language Classroom
Giulia Sulis and Jenefer Philp
7. Examining Learner Engagement in Relationship to Learning and Communication Mode
Carly Henderson, Daniel Jung, and Laura Gurzynski-Weiss
8. Fake or Real Engagement – Looks can be Deceiving
Sarah Mercer, Kyle Talbot, and Isobel Kai-Hui Wang
9. The Effect of Choice on Affective Engagement: Implications for Task Design
Linh Phung, Sachiko Nakamura, and Hayo Reinders
10. How Ideal Classmates Priming Increases EFL Classroom Prosocial Engagement
Tetsuya Fukuda, Yoshifumi Fukada, Joseph Falout, and Tim Murphey
11. Engagement and Immersion in Virtual Reality Narratives
Nicole Mills
12. Engagement Growth in Language Learning Classrooms: A Latent Growth Analysis of
Engagement in Japanese Elementary Schools
W. L. Quint Oga-Baldwin and Luke K. Fryer
13. Modeling the Relations Between Foreign Language Engagement, Emotions, Grit, and
Reading Achievement
Gholam Hassan Khajavy
14. Conceptualizing Willingness to Engage in L2 Learning beyond the Classroom
Isobel Kai-Hui Wang and Sarah Mercer
15. Engagement: The Active Verb Between the Curriculum and Learning
Phil Hiver, Sarah Mercer, and Ali Al-Hoorie
External Reviewers
Scott Aubrey
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
Ali Dincer
Erzincan Binali Yildirim University, Turkey
Alastair Henry
University West, Sweden
Tae-Young Kim
Chung-Ang University, South Korea
Christine Muir
University of Nottingham, England
Richard Pinner
Sophia University, Japan
Mostafa Papi
Florida State University, USA
Masatoshi Sato
Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile
Alyssa Vuono
Florida State University, USA
Foreword
People are inherently social creatures, and in order to connect and regulate their social
interactions, they must internalize their cultures. But cultures cannot be internalized without
language. Indeed, language is the vehicle through which we learn about our social world,
discover its rules and values, and express our personal natures, allowing us to connect with
others, both in relationships of exchange and of caring.
Cultures themselves interact. As far back as the origins of human history, groups of
individuals sharing a common culture and language made contact with other groups, each unified
by their own shared tongue. Of great value was anyone who could ably facilitate those intergroup
contacts—those people who were multilingual.
Today we humans exist in a globally interconnected world. We can transact with people
from anywhere in seconds through the internet, or visit them through rapid means of travel, and
in doing so experience a bit of their cultures. But others’ cultures and experiences can only be
deeply experienced when we share in the ways in which those others express themselves and
connect with each other—when we can hear and speak with them in their own expressive forms.
Being able to speak another’s language is thus not just beneficial practically, for sharing
knowledge or making economic transactions; it’s also a gift of connectedness.
As useful and meaningful as sharing a language is, learning a second language is not
easy. Although we have seemingly natural tools for learning languages during early
development, adding new languages into our repertoire later comes only with work and effort.
Nonetheless, it is not that uncommon. Approximately half of the world’s population is bilingual,
although many acquire those skills early on through exposure within their homes and families.
Approximately 13% of people worldwide are also multilingual or polyglots, so clearly many
people are motivated to learn others’ tongues and those that do have richer lives indeed.
Because most of us do not have opportunity to pick up another language in our homes
and early environments, in modern times the major way of acquiring this special gift is in
classroom settings. That is, we tend to learn languages in formal school contexts, often with a
classic format of a teacher who transmits this knowledge using the standard tools of educators—
pedagogically determined instruction, textbooks, assignments, performances, tests, and grades.
This is in so many ways particularly unfortunate, because, sadly, schools are not always the most
intrinsically motivating or engaging of environments. They tend to be characterized by social
comparisons, extrinsic motivational strategies, winners and losers, with the resulting feelings of
alienation, incompetence and failure for so many. My colleagues and I in self-determination
theory have often bemoaned how the strategies applied to “make” students learn are so often
inadequate or even toxic in engendering engagement and satisfaction.
This is where this important volume comes into play. It concerns the why’s and the how’s
of people acquiring a second language, and more specifically how we can make that engaging.
Engagement is in fact the primary focus of all the papers included here. Important is that
engagement is not treated herein simplistically, but rather in all its facets. Authors recognize that
true engagement requires that the learner at least to some extent finds the process of learning a
language intrinsically motivating—learners need to experience some joys and satisfactions in the
activity itself. But it also means finding utility, purpose, and meaning in the learning process.
That sense of utility and purpose, of having a larger goal beyond just interest and enjoyment, is
critical especially when it comes to the difficult part of learning languages, which are manifold.
So, cultivating both intrinsic motivation and an autonomous or volitional extrinsic motivation is
essential in catalyzing the attentiveness and disciplined actions entailed in truly engaged
language learning. The editors and authors in this work also recognize that for language teachers
inspiring such motivation is an especially complex and formidable task. This is because, for
many students, a new language comes only with difficulty—it is truly foreign to them.
Chapters in this volume provide a treasure chest of resources for teachers and researchers
who want to more deeply craft strategies for engagement. Indeed, they cover engagement in all
its complexity. Chapters herein help define engagement, (chapters by Sang & Hiver; Svalberg)
and understand how we measure and evaluate it (Zhou, Hiver, & Al-Hoorie). They address how
feedback impacts leaners (Han & Gao) and the kinds of classrooms, and tasks and strategies that
spawn or hinder engagement (Henderson, Jung, & Gurzynski-Weiss; Phung, Nakamura, &
Reinders) and positive emotional experiences (Khajavy). They describe the impact of modern
tools and technologies used to facilitate learning (Mills). They also look at the experience of
engagement from the eyes of learners (Mercer, Talbot, & Wang), including the relationships
between students and their teachers and peers which strongly impact engagement (Fukuda,
Fukada, Falout, & Murphey; Sulis & Philp). They address the nuances associated with learning
at different stages of development (Oga-Baldwin & Fryer). Together they all help to understand
how teachers can cultivate that true willingness to engage (Wang & Mercer) that is requisite to
successfully mastering an additional language.
Speaking personally, it is only recently that I have come to be a student of engagement in
the domain of language learning. As a long-time scholar in the field of motivation, however, I
have been inspired by what I see emerging in this complex area of scholarship and practice. I
thus found myself absorbed and engaged by these contributions. But more than such intrinsic
motivation, I also felt a larger purpose here, one conveyed by a number of these authors. Yes,
our world is shrinking in so many ways—becoming a global economy with increasing
homogeneities and occupied with shared concerns, from pandemics to poverty to global
warming. But, if there was ever a time for us to be investing in sharing and communicating it is
now. If there was ever a time to enhance our students’ engagement with what is “foreign” to
them, it is now. If there was ever a time to help people connect across human communities, it is
now. As it has always been across history, language is the vehicle through which that is
accomplished. I thus applaud this volume and the tasks undertaken by each of these author
teams, which are all aimed at enhancing classroom engagement in L2 classrooms around the
world. Our students need it, our schools need it, and more importantly our world needs it.
Richard M. Ryan
North Sydney, NSW, Australia
Chapter 2
Engagement and companion constructs in language learning: Conceptualizing learners’
involvement in the L2 classroom
Yuan Sang and Phil Hiver
Abstract
Researchers in the field of second and foreign language (L2) education have an abiding concern
with the ways and means by which learners actively devote effort and attention to L2 learning.
This is because learners’ interest and desire to engage with learning opportunities, and
expenditure of effort while learning, are crucial conditions for L2 development. In addition to the
constructs of motivation and interest, two concepts that provide a framework for conceptualizing
L2 learners’ meaningful involvement and expenditure of effort, as a corollary to such deliberate
attention and active participation, are engagement and investment. On one hand, rooted in
educational psychology, engagement refers to “a state of heightened attention and involvement,
in which participation is reflected” in cognitive, social, behavioral, and affective dimensions
(Philp & Duchesne, 2016, p. 3). On the other hand, investment is grounded in poststructuralist
social theories and the accompanying perspectives of language and identity. Though also
conceptualizing learners’ expenditure of effort and discussing concepts such as interest and
motivation, investment emphasizes the intertwined “relationship between language learner
identity and language learning commitment” (Norton, 2012, p. 343). The goals of this chapter are
to provide a comparative review of the constructs of engagement and investment, with their
connections to interest and motivation, and highlight their uniquenesses and commonalities.
Chapter 3
Engagement with language (EWL) in relation to form-focused versus meaning-focused
teaching and learning
Agneta M. L. Svalberg
Abstract
This chapter discusses what we can learn from the general grammar teaching literature and from
a series of empirical studies (Svalberg 2012, 2014, 2015; Svalberg and Askham 2015, 2020)
about what may inhibit or enhance learners’ Engagement With Language (EWL).
While EWL is deemed to be effective in helping learners construct explicit knowledge about
language (Language Awareness), at the same time, affordances for using the language in
meaningful interaction are widely recognized as essential. The former directs learners’ attention
towards form, while the latter encourages a meaning focus. There seems to be a certain degree of
tension between the two and teachers may wonder how to reconcile them. The chapter draws on
a project in which teachers of a number of foreign languages were familiarized with a particular,
task based approach combining a form focus with focus-on-meaning. The teachers designed their
own tasks and implemented them in their classrooms (Svalberg and Askham, 2020).
Summing up, the chapter outlines principles and suggestions for tasks likely to provide both
affordances for high quality engagement with language, and opportunities to use newly
constructed LA in communicative interaction.
Chapter 4
Research on learner engagement with written (corrective) feedback: Insights and issues
Ye Han and Xuesong (Andy) Gao
Abstract
Second language learners’ engagement with written feedback, especially written corrective
feedback, has recently drawn increasing attention in research. The bulk of research has been
informed by previous research on student engagement, oral feedback, and second language
writing pedagogy. These studies highlight the centrality of engagement in second language
learning and reveal the complex, contextualized, and dynamic characteristics of engagement.
However, due to the highly similar research design and research context, these studies have
generated repetitive findings, leaving a few important issues under-explored. This chapter
provides a critical overview of relevant research on learner engagement with written (corrective)
feedback by (a) sorting out the theoretical perspectives and prior studies that informed relevant
research endeavors, (b) synthesizing meaningful findings and insights from these studies, (c)
problematizing recent research on student engagement with feedback, and (d) proposing possible
solutions for future research. We argue that, to push the boundaries further, more
methodologically innovative studies should be conducted over a longer time span to explore
individual learners’ engagement with feedback and its complexity.
Chapter 5
Measuring L2 engagement: A review of issues and applications
Shiyao (Ashlee) Zhou, Phil Hiver, and Ali H. Al-Hoorie
Abstract
In this chapter our objective is to explore the past, present, and future of measuring the construct
of engagement. We first introduce some of the more prominent approaches to measuring student
engagement from general education, including student self-report, experience sampling, teacher
ratings of students, interviews, and observations. We describe how each approach has been
applied to measuring engagement, touch on issues of validity and reliability, and discuss the
strengths and weakness of each measurement approach for L2 researchers. Following this, we
examine several widely used self-report measures in student engagement research with reference
to operational definitions of engagement, use, samples, and psychometric information. We
elaborate on dilemmas related to the measurement of engagement in L2 learning, such as the
differentiation of L2 engagement and related constructs (e.g., interest, motivation), the variety of
purposes for measuring L2 engagement (e.g., theory-testing vs. links to interventions), and
measuring general L2 engagement vs. L2 engagement in specific domains (e.g., task- and skill-
specific engagement). Finally, we summarize the limitations of currently available instruments
for eliciting engagement data and discuss directions for future development in the field.
Chapter 6
Exploring connections between classroom environment and engagement in the foreign
language classroom
Giulia Sulis and Jenefer Philp
Abstract
This study seeks to explore the connections between classroom environment and engagement in
two L2 French University classrooms at beginner and advanced level. While classroom
environment, (social and academic), is a key element of learning, it is not often paired in
conjunction with engagement. To some degree this has been due to a lack of a clear
operationalisation of the construct “classroom environment”.
This study draws on “environmental complexity”, that is, a conceptual model of the learning
environment developed by Shernoff, Kelly, Tonks, Anderson, Cavanagh, Sinha and Abdi,
(2016), made up of “environmental challenge” and “environmental support”. We use this
construct to explore the connections between classroom environment and engagement (Philp &
Duchesne, 2016). Two sets of data are drawn from a first year French Beginner class (n=14) and
a second year French Advanced class (n=16), each taught by the same experienced tutor and
native speaker of French. Focal students were 4 Beginners and 6 Advanced students.
The data comprised a combination of video, observation and interviews with the teacher and
with the focal students, collected over two academic terms. Findings suggest that environmental
support through both teachers and students fosters behavioural and emotional engagement. For
example, when class activities matched students’ interest and background, when teachers
provided encouragement and were patently present, students showed higher involvement and
enjoyment of the task at hand. Interestingly the impact of challenges differed between students.
There is some evidence to suggest that task enjoyment counterbalanced the perceived difficulty
of the task, although this differed somewhat according to self-efficacy as well as interest in the
task.
Chapter 7
Examining learner engagement in relationship to learning and communication mode
Carly Henderson, Daniel Jung, and Laura Gurzynski-Weiss
Abstract
While engagement is considered integral to academic success, it is rarely operationalized in
research and has yet to be investigated as a predictor of L2 learning, despite evidence that it may
be a precursor of noticing (Baralt, Gurzynski-Weiss, & Kim, 2016). Prior research has also
shown that engagement may be mediated by interaction mode. This study is the first to
investigate how engagement, operationalized along cognitive, affective, social (Svalberg, 2009,
2012) as well as behavioral (Philp & Duchesne, 2016) dimensions relates to L2 learning, and if
this relationship differs according to interaction mode (face-to-face and synchronous text-based
chat). Sixteen intermediate-level learners of Spanish participated in information gap task-based
interactions in both modes with an interlocutor in a counterbalanced design, followed by mode-
specific stimulated recall sessions. Learners’ interactions, stimulated recall sessions, and post-
task questionnaires were coded for the four types of engagement and examined in relationship
with learning, operationalized as pretest to posttest gains made on task-specific vocabulary,
Spanish copula, and gender agreement. The predictive power of engagement was examined both
as a four-part construct as well as individually by engagement type in relationship to the three
types of learning, selected based on their differences in salience, task-essentialness, and learner
prior knowledge.
Chapter 8
Fake or real engagement – Looks can be deceiving
Sarah Mercer, Kyle Talbot, and Isobel Kai-Hui Wang
Abstract
Engagement has been referred to as ‘“the holy grail of learning” (Sinatra, Heddy & Lombardi,
2015, p. 1). Every teacher wants their learners to be engaged, to be actively working on the task,
emotionally invested and cognitively focused on it. However, in the age of distractions, this is
becoming increasingly difficult. The question every language teacher asks is how do I get my
learners’ attention and keep them focused on task?
In this chapter, we report on a two-stage study designed to investigate language learner
engagement from the learner perspective. Stage 1 involved a series of 5 exploratory focus
groups, which aimed to understand the quality and character of learner engagement, in particular
their perspectives on why and when they were engaged or not. An interesting finding in the
analysis of these data revealed that learners sometimes consciously manipulate their behaviours
in order to feign engagement in front of the teacher. This aspect of the data has important
implications for practice and how teachers interpret learner behaviours, which may outwardly
resemble engagement but may in fact be more acts of compliance as students enact the diligent
learner role. Such behaviour also threatens the validity of research approaches, which may rely
strongly on observational data as a measure of engagement. Consequently, stage 2 of the study
sought to better understand the ‘fake’ engagement of learners at tertiary and secondary level
through survey data and interviews. It looked in particular at the types of strategies learners
employ but also their motives in doing so and how this varies across contexts, concentrating
especially on notions of compliance and procedural versus substantive engagement (Nystrand &
Gamoran, 1991; Shernoff, 2013). As teachers and researchers, it is imperative that we distinguish
between fake and real engagement.
Chapter 9
The effect of choice on affective engagement: implications for task design
Linh Phung, Sachiko Nakamura, and Hayo Reinders
Abstract
Learner engagement has been recognized as important for L2 learning in task-based language
teaching (Egbert, 2003; Philp and Duchesne, 2016; Svalberg, 2009). Research into engagement
in L2 tasks has indicated that when learners have more control or choice over what tasks to
perform, topics to discuss, or ideas to bring up, they are more engaged on tasks (Butler, 2017;
Lambert, Philp, and Nakamura, 2017; and Phung, 2017). In addition, when learners find the
topics or content familiar, personally relevant, and not too difficult, they are more likely to have
a positive affective disposition to the task (Phung, 2017; Qui and Lo, 2017). This chapter reports
a study that asked 24 learners at a Thai university to complete two tasks at two different levels of
choice (+constraint and -constraint) and compared their subjective responses in a questionnaire
after each task. The questionnaire used 23 Likert-scale items on learners’ enjoyment, focus, and
freedom of expression as well as their perceptions of task difficulty, task familiarity, and task
anxiety. A MANOVA conducted on these components showed a higher level of enjoyment,
focus, freedom of expression, and, interestingly, task anxiety in the -constraint task. There were
no statistically significant differences in their perceptions of the task difficulty and familiarity
between the two tasks. We concluded that task developers need to consider factors that influence
learners’ affective engagement in task performance although the relationship between task
anxiety and other dimensions of engagement (behavioral and cognitive) is complicated
(Nakamura, Phung, and Reinders., in preparation) and needs further exploration.
Chapter 10
How ideal classmates priming increases EFL classroom prosocial engagement?
Tetsuya Fukuda, Yoshifumi Fukada, Joseph Falout, and Tim Murphey
Abstract
Encouraging students to imagine possible ideal classmates has been hypothesized to prime
prosocial engagement with actual classmates in L2 classrooms, particularly for classrooms in
which student silence, resistance and demotivation stand as problems to classroom group
dynamics and personal academic achievement. Although some studies have provided empirical
evidence, the hypothesis has not yet been tested in a more rigorously designed study until now.
The authors specifically conceptualize engagement as an expression of subjective interpersonal
relationships as occur during classroom interaction, theoretically embedded within broader
individual perspectives of school belonging and school identification, and realized through
physical presence and academic achievement.
For this study, university EFL communication classrooms were randomly assigned to one of
either of the two priming conditions, ideal classmates or future selves. Depending on the
condition, students individually expressed their imagined EFL-related ideal classmates or future
selves. The students then self-reported their own past, present and future EFL motivations at the
beginning and end of one semester, while also relating the levels of their classmates’ and their
own prosocial learning behaviors. The analysis explores the degree to which ideal classmates
priming influences engagement, while open-ended comments from students can help explain
their subjective experiences of student-student prosocial engagement.
Chapter 11
Engagement and cultural immersion in virtual reality narratives
Nicole Mills
Abstract
Walker and White (2013) suggest that technology is transforming language learning and research
is needed to understand how emerging technologies influence engagement. Through virtual
reality experiences, students can change the way they experience material, alter perceptions and
attitudes, and learn complex information in context (Lee, Dede, Huang, and Richards, 2017).
This manuscript describes a Paris Narrative Virtual reality (VR) project in which four Parisians
from different backgrounds recorded their personal, social, and professional lives with a VR
camera. Each Parisian VR narrative allows language learners to vividly experience Parisian life
in multiple sensory modalities (visual, auditory, sensory, etc.) This manuscript will showcase
how this deeply contextualized and culturally immersive platform and its accompanying teaching
materials target the cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and social dimensions of engagement
(Philp & Duquesne, 2016). The lesson design includes four phases inspired by Barnes-Karol &
Broner’s (2010) framework. Phase one includes a pre-viewing phase in which students discuss
predictions and hypotheses about VR content (cognitive and social engagement). Phase two
includes an extended immersive viewing phase (emotional and behavioral engagement). In phase
three, students re-watch selected VR segments and discuss description questions in groups
(cognitive, behavioral, and social engagement). Phase four includes a discussion and analysis of
the collected descriptive data in both small and large group discussion (cognitive and social
engagement). Description of future research and data elicitation will follow.
Chapter 12
Engagement growth in language learning classrooms: A latent growth analysis of
engagement in Japanese elementary schools
W. L. Quint Oga-Baldwin and Luke K. Fryer
Abstract
As outlined by Fredricks and colleagues (2004), engagement is a multifaceted concept describing
how students think, act, and feel in class. Behavioral engagement describes how students pay
attention and work to complete classroom tasks. Emotional engagement has both internal and
external manifestations, where students enjoy the classroom and tasks materials and do not suffer
negative affect. Cognitive engagement refers to how students actively think during class by
making connections, solving problems, and answering questions. In this study, we aimed to show
how these three facets of engagement change over the course of two years of Japanese
elementary school language learning. Elementary school students learning English in a suburban
school district in Japan (n = 478) completed surveys during the 2013 and 2014 school years.
Students’ engagement was measured at five time points during their two years of English
instruction. Latent Growth Curve (LGC) analysis was used to measure changes in their
engagement. Results showed a clear positive trend for cognitive engagement over the course of
two years. Behavioral engagement showed weak growth, while emotional engagement did not
change. These findings indicate that students’ behavior and enjoyment of their classroom
activities may not change over time, reaching a stable point, while they may begin to engage in
cognitive aspects of communication over the course of their studies. Results further hint that
positive learning behaviors and enjoyment of the learning process may be necessary precursors
to cognitive engagement and later language learning.
References:
Fredricks, J. A., Blumenfeld, P., & Paris, A. H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the
concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74(1), 59–109.
Chapter 13
Modeling the relations between foreign language engagement, emotions, grit, and reading
achievement
Gholam Hassan Khajavy
Abstract
Student engagement has been considered a vital factor in L2 learning. However, there are very
few studies which have examined this construct in L2 learning. First, there is little understanding
about the role of discrete emotions on student engagement and several researchers have called
for research on this topic (Boekaerts, 2016; Pekrun & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2012). Second,
students’ engagement has been found to be related to their motivation and grit, though no
studies, to our knowledge, has examined the relation between engagement and L2 motivational
self-system and L2 grit. Considering the paucity of research on engagement in the field of SLA,
the aim of this research is to examine how engagement is longitudinally related to L2 emotions,
motivation, grit, and achievement. For this purpose, a total of 150 university students who are
studying English as an academic major would participate in the study. Students would rate their
emotions, motivation, grit, and engagement at two time points, once at the beginning of the
semester and then at the end of the semester. Subsequently, they would be given a C-test and a
reading comprehension test to assess their L2 achievement. The longitudinal relations among
variables would be examined using structural equation modeling. Findings would indicate how
experiencing different emotions and having different motivations and grit affect students’
engagement and achievement in the language classrooms.
Chapter 14
Conceptualising willingness to engage in L2 learning beyond the classroom
Isobel Kai-Hui Wang and Sarah Mercer
Abstract
Increasing numbers of people are engaging in language learning ‘beyond the classroom’ (Benson
& Reinders, 2011). Out-of-class learning environments have great potential for providing
language learners with authentic language input, and opportunities to develop language skills.
The burgeoning of online resources and mobile technologies, in particular, has expanded
affordances for language learning and use beyond the classroom. Therefore, for those in
formalised learning contexts, out-of-class learning has become a critical dimension of successful
language learning (Richards, 2015). However, in order to fully exploit the resources and
affordances beyond the classroom, learners need to have high levels of engagement and be
personally invested in their language learning processes.
In this article, we explore data from a six-month longitudinal study based on a series of semi-
structured interviews and learning journals of a beginner learner of German. Inspired by the
pyramid model of Willingness to Communicate (WTC) (MacIntyre et al.,1998) and the notion of
Willingness to Participate (WTP) (Kubanyiova & Yue, 2019), we propose a model of
Willingness to Engage (WTE) emerging from our analysis of our data. It comprises individual,
social, and contextual variables which interact together to describe and explain this learners’
engagement in L2 use beyond the classroom. We suggest directions for further research using the
notion of WTE and for understanding learner engagement in L2 learning beyond the classroom.
We conclude by reflecting on the practical implications of our data-driven model for teachers
and individuals interested in how to increase WTE.
References
Benson, P., & Reinders, H. (Eds.) (2011). Beyond the language classroom. Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Kubanyiova, M., & Yue, Z. (2019). Willingness to communicate in L2: Persons’ emerging
capacity to participate in acts of meaning making with one another. Journal for the Psychology
of Language Learning, 1, 42-66.
MacIntyre, P., Dörnyei, Z., Clément, R., & Noels, K. (1998). Conceptualizing willingness to
communicate in a L2: A situational model of L2 confidence and affiliation. The Modern
Language Journal, 82(4), 545-562.
Richards, J. (2015). The changing face of language learning: Learning beyond the classroom.
RELC Journal, 46(1), 5-22.
