Background to the study
One of the most significant factors influencing effective learning is student engagement Student engagement refers to active participation or involvement in various academic and school-related activities as well as a commitment to achieving learning objectives.
Learners with a strong interest in the subject matter are more likely to devote their time and effort to achieve their goals As a result, engagement is viewed as a motivator which helps students obtain their academic success or achievement (Astin, 1984;Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Robinson & Hullinger, 2008; Tinto, 2012; Kuh.G, 2009).The degree to which students act in terms of attention, curiosity, interest, enthusiasm,and motivation to accomplish advancement in their studies can be used to determine how engaged they are in learning.
Statement of the problems
English language learning takes place throughout learners’ childhood The question is how to create, develop student engagement or keep their engagement consistent in the classroom-based setting as well as in school events As can be seen clearly during the lessons that a number of students who keep silent or show demotivation or little interest, even though they are at a higher level of English proficiency They did their learning activities passively in classes Some students seem to use more mother tongue instead of English for communication in class Some others easily fall asleep or talk too much in the class while most of the students do not participate in the scheduled after-school activities or extra curriculum programmes related to English Even some good students who used to be outstanding at the primary school show disengagement when they transition from the primary school to the secondary school and to the high school Therefore, it is necessary to portray the situation and identify what the causes are as well as what influences student engagement to increase student engagement as well as its consistency.
Aims and objectives of the study
This study aims to investigate the nature of engagement, capture the necessary conditions for or influential factors on engagement and explore what extent of engagement VAschools students at any levels show in the EFL classes It closes with some practical implications for curriculum design and English language teaching strategies, as well as recommendations for not only maintaining learning engagement but also re-engaging disaffected students The research objectives are as follows:
To examine how engaged VAschools students are to perceive English lessons and to participate in school events using English language.
To explore factors influencing student engagement.
To find out effective ways to optimize student engagement and maintain the consistency in the engagement among the students so that they can achieve and promote positive development.
Research questions
The following research questions must be addressed to achieve the previously mentioned goals:
1 To what extent do VAschools students engage in learning English and school events using English language?
2 What factors influence student engagement?
3 What should be done to improve student engagement in learning English in the offline setting and participating in school events using English?
Scope of the study
The study focuses on student engagement in learning English in classroom-based model and in school events at VAschools Vung Tau, which is situated at 95 Ly Thuong Kiet, Ward 1, Vung Tau City, Ba Ria – Vung Tau The research does not generalize to online setting which was only applied in the Covid pandemics.
At VAschools, English is a compulsory subject from grade 6 to grade 12, with twelve hours per week including General English, Math, Science and KET/PET/FCE/IELTS. The students are currently classified into five different levels based on their English proficiency (Pre-KET, KET, PET, FCE and IELTS band 3.0 – 7.0).
Due to the scope of the study, only general English classes and extra curriculum activities related to EFL are chosen for the research Three instruments, which are class observation checklists, surveys (online surveys and paper surveys) and semi-structured interviews, are used to collect data from the subjects of the research: six teachers ofGeneral English and 13 classes with 250 English students through class observations and then 16 students at class FCE2 and 24 participants selected at random from the other 12 classes (2 students in each class) for questionnaires and interviews.
Significance of the study
The findings of this study could provide primary data sources that can be used for meaningful educational purposes, such as solving the problems related to English language teaching and learning at VAschools Definitely, the students, the teachers, the administrators and the parents could benefit from this study.
The ultimate goal of this research is to identity why many, not all, of the students are lack of active involvement in EFL classes for a long time, no matter what levels they are at Also, the research could help the school educators grasp the actual needs of the learners, adjust the curriculum and educational activities appropriately to its reality.Last but not least, it suggests useful techniques and teaching methods which help to motivate the students and get them more engaged actively in EFL lessons as well as school activities.
Organization of the study
The thesis consists of five chapters.
Chapter 1 serves as an introduction, including background information, aims and objectives of the study, research questions, the scope of the inquiry, the significance of the study, definitions of key terms and the thesis structure.
Chapter 2 presents the conceptualization of engagement, discusses the nature and dimensions of student engagement, as well as its relationship with motivation and active learning; distinguishesengagement, motivation and agency.
Chapter 3 describes the methodology for studying engagement, factors influencing student engagement in classrooms, leading to a model of outcomes associated with engagement It includes the design, research location, sample and sample techniques, research instruments, data collecting process, and data processing procedures.
Chapter 4 presents the findings based on data analysis from observations, survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.
Chapter 5summarizes the significant results, implications, limitations and suggestions for further investigation.
LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of student engagement
Different levels of engagement
Engagement is presented with four levels in Figure 2.1.
Figure 2.1: Model of motivational dynamic (E.A Skinner & J.R Pitzer, 2012, p.23)
The first tier depicts engagement in school, a crucial aspect within prosocial institutions fostering positive youth development and shielding adolescents from various risks, such as unsafe sexual activity (Morrison, Robertson, Laurie & Kelly, 2002).
At the second level (engagement with school), students actively participate in various school-related activities and events, for instance, academics, sports, bands, and other extra-curricular activities This form of engagement cultivates students' affinity for school and acts as a deterrent against absenteeism and dropout rates.
Thirdly, engagement in the classroom pertains to students' involvement with the curriculum and academic tasks.
Finally, engagement with learning activities encompasses characteristics such as willingness to learn, emotional positivism, constructive participation, enthusiasm, and cognitive focus during school activities (Connell & Wellborn, 1991; Skinner,Kindermann, Connell, et al., 2009a; Skinner, Kindermann, & Furrer, 2009b).
However, this study advocates for a three-tiered approach to engagement, focusing on engagement with the school, engagement with specific courses/subjects, and engagement with individual tasks/activities Further details are outlined below.
Figure 2.2: Different levels of engagement
Dimensions of student engagement
Engagement is multidimensional and involves emotions, behaviours, and cognitions (Shernoff, 2013), all of which are interrelated (Daniel Ginting, 2021).
The first is behavioral engagement, which is correlated with learners' level of active participation in the learning process as well as its quality (Phil Hiver et al., 2021). Following the rules and upholding the norms of the classroom, exhibiting interest in learning and academic work through focus, attentiveness, questioning, and active participation in group projects or discussions, taking part in extracurricular or in-class activities, or exhibiting a willingness to become self-directed learners are examples of behavioral engagement (Birch & Ladd, 1997) Sang & Hiver (2021) define behavioral engagement as the amount of work that students put into their assignments, the effectiveness of their involvement, and the degree to which they actively participate in their education Put differently, Sang & Hiver (2021) emphasize the caliber of students' behavior.
The second concept is emotional involvement, which describes how learners feel when completing a task (Fredricks et al., 2004) This includes both positive and negative emotions, such asenthusiasm, interest, and/or enjoyment, as well as frustration, worry,
Engagement with the course/ subject
Macklem (2015), is the mental effort and mental activity that students put forth during the learning process It includes the interests, attitudes, and values of students that are connected to both positive and negative interactions with peers, teachers, academics, and school activities Due to learners' attitudes or perceptions in the classroom or through language-related tasks, emotional engagement has a significant impact on other engagement dimensions (Dao, 2019; Hiver et al., 2021, p.5).
Third, cognitive engagement describes an individual's attempts to demonstrate his capacity to learn knowledge or new skills (Daniel Ginting, 2021, p 217) According to Hiver et al (2021), students who are cognitively engaged "exhibit deliberate, selective, and sustained attention to achieve a given task or learning goals." (p.4).
Depending on the form of student engagement, each of these three dimensions can be positive or negative, according to Ali and Hassan (2014) This implies that a learner may show his behavioral, emotional and cognitive engagement either by positive engagement, negative engagement or indirect engagement This should be illustrated in the following table.
Table 2.1: Dimensions of student engagement (Source: Ali & Hassan, 2014)
Positive engagement Indirect engagement Negative engagement Behavior Attending classes, participating in activities
Cognition Meeting and exceeding the task and requirements
Question tasks given by teacher
These components of student engagement will be used to design survey questionnaires,observation checklists and tentative interview questions for data collection in this study.
Influential factors on student engagement
Regarding factors influencing learner engagement, scholars have had different views.According to Major (2015), engagement is affected by motivation, attention and intellectual effort Robinson & Hullinger (2008), Kuh (2009), Dixson (2010) and
Hoskins (2012) all stated that interaction, motivation, effort, active learning and time commitment act as pivotal components of engagement.
This study categories influential factors on student engagement into two main groups, such ascontextual factors and learner-related factors.
Sahil (2010) considered three contextual factors such as families, school environment and peers mainly contribute to student engagement in schools.
To begin with, family factors including family support and involvement play a crucial role in shaping student involvement This includes setting high educational expectations, offering conductive learning environment and motivational support as well as controlling and monitoring over their children’s development (Ali & Hassan, 2004) Additionally, Knollmann & Wild (2007) and Yazzie-Mintz (2010) stated that parental involvement in their children’s schooling is largely related to and impacts the children’s engagement at both primary and secondary levels.
Subsequently, school environment (namely culture, community, curriculum and co- curriculum – Bardin & Lewis, 2011) acts as a critical determinant of student engagement Various studies highlighted the significance of teachers’ support and encouragement in fostering student engagement (Smith, Ito, Gruenewald, & Yeh, 2010; Trowler, 2010; Li, Doyle Lynch, Kalvin, Liu, & Lerner, 2011).
Teacher support influences behavioral, emotional and cognitive engagement and can be either academic or interpersonal (Fredricks et al.,2004) Other teacher-related factors include teachers’ language proficiency and pedagogical skills as well as personality as it could be inferred from Farimah Ghasembolanda & Fatimah BintiHashimb’s study in 2013 that those teachers who are more proficient in English would engage students more impacting in the English classrooms than managing the class and using the instructional strategies Moreover, the quality and degree of teacher-student relationship as well as the climate of classrooms, as pinpointed by Quin (2017), have direct influence on students’ engagement Thus, caring behaviors of English teachers play a crucial role in creating engagement among their students Apart from teachers(one of the school communities), other school-environment-related factors are mentioned in the 4C’s concept introduced by Bardin & Lewis (2011).
Table 2.2: The 4Cs concept (Bardin & Lewis, 2011)
School culture School’s mission and vision, trust, value, tradition, aspiration, school structure, organization and curriculumn matter
School community A relationship that reflects the school and its members, the interaction between students, teachers and administrators with communities and individuals outside the school
The relationships built should be of great quality and depth.
School curriculum The value expected by the school to be achieved by students in the form of attitudes, skills and knowledge.
School co-curriculum Provides opportunities to learn beyond in the classroom with an emphasis on experience.
Peer factor (friends and other peer relationships) has an influence on students' involvement as peers foster the growth of student social relationships, build a sense of comfort and motivate them to participate in school activities Adolescents are similar in that they both possess traits including desire, autonomy, and peer orientation. Therefore, peers can motivate student engagement in school work and in extracurricular activities or encourage student disengagement In other words, students are involved in classwork with their engaged classmates whereas disengaged students showed that they were less-engaged (Ali & Hassan, 2004, p.2166) A contextual model and outcomes of student engagement is presented in Figure 2.3.
Finally, learner-related factors including ages, English proficiency, learner agency, perception, motivation, active learning, self-regulated learning, … have much impact on learner engagement in classroom as well as in school Stevick presents his idea about success of learning English that it does not depend much on materials and techniques but it is what is really inside each learner.
Figure 2.3: A contextual model for student engagement (S.f Lam et al., 2012, p.406)
According to Mahatmya, Lohman, Matjasko, and Farb (2012), middle childhood is the time when student engagement is at its peak Students' degree of participation declines as they transition from primary to secondary school; and then from secondary to high school, and the gap between engaged and disengaged students becomes bigger and bigger (Shernoff, 2013) The explanation is that when positive emotions decline along with interest, liking school, in learning and in self-esteem.
Language proficiency, as defined by Gaillard & Tremblay (2016, p.420), refers to the linguistic knowledge and skills essential for second language or foreign language learners to comprehend and produce the target language successfully Consequently, language proficiency stands as a pivotal factor influencing academic performance. Accuracy, fluency, and cognitive involvement with the activity are all impacted by language proficiency The findings from Edgar Emmanuell Garcia-Ponce
& Parvaneh Tavakoli’s study (2022) revealed that advanced learners exhibited the highest levels of fluency, accuracy and cognitive engagement across various tasks(Edgar Emmanuell Garcia-Ponce & Parvaneh Tavakoli,2022).
Lower-proficiency EFL learners may have to pay more attention to retrieving pertinent lexical items and grammatical structures and may become less involved or even disengaged in learner-generated-content tasks than teacher-generated content ones (Lambert et al., 2017) Disengaged students frequently give up, withdraw effort and have strong fear of failure along with minimal effort put into homework completion.
In brief, English proficiency, a decisive factor, is an important variable in language teaching and learning Therefore, it is more likely that English proficiency has great impact on learners’ attitudes and engagement.
Boredom, categorized as a kind of negative emotion, would decrease the likelihood of employing learning strategies such as elaboration or critical thinking As per Ahmed et al (2013), boredom exhibited an increase over the time period of the research with individual differences in the growth rate For instance, compared to their peers, a student commencing the academic year with greater levels of disengagement or boredom encounters accelerated growth in these negative feelings.
Engagement, motivation and active learning
First, the term ‘motivation’ refers to the desire of a student to learn new things (Daniel Ginting, 2021, p.219) Motivation forms the basis of engagement (Martin, 2012) and is the portal to engagement (Elizabeth F Barkley, 2009) Motivation occurs before cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement and before students are engaged in a task.
Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation are the two categories of motivation While intrinsic motivation is concerned with one's interest and enjoyment of the work, extrinsic motivation refers to external incentives such as prizes … Extrinsic incentive has an influence on intrinsic motivation Therefore, motivation is considered to be both a contextual factor and a learner-related factor.
According to Keller, students become more motivated by four factors (attention,relevance, confidence, and satisfaction) (Keller, 1987) Attention refers to the focus ability on a single task so it is identified as a motivator and a requirement for learning.Satisfaction or meeting their learning goals is viewed as a condition in which students participate more actively in learning activities Relevance refers to the relevant knowledge that students may apply in their life/study or in the future employment A t student's capacity to achieve his success is greatly influenced by their degree of confidence.
According to Bonwell and Eison (1991), active learning is defined as any activity in which students participate actively and give their work careful attention Learners who are engaged in active learning do not only function as observers or note-takers; rather, they participate actively in learning activities such as idea mapping, role-playing, reviews, conversations, practical projects, analysis, synthesis and assessment.
Therefore, student engagement is viewed as the product (rather than a sum) of motivation and active learning It is generated by the intersection of motivation and active learning, as illustrated in Figure 3 (Elizabeth F Barkley, 2009)
Figure 2.4: Venn Diagram Model of Student Engagemen
Previous studies
Researching the student engagement has been conducted widely over the past decade. This section reviews several researches related to the interesting topic that are thought to cover all the aspects (at school level, at classroom level, at a course level and at task level).
In 2021, Daniel Ginting conducted a study to investigating how engaged the students in Indonesia, where he lives and works, are in learning English language based on the degree to which students act in terms of attention, curiosity, interest, enthusiasm, and motivation in classroom settings, especially in the online and offline environments His research provides a comprehensive evaluation of the literature on a number of experts' perspectives on student engagement in the learning English He emphasized three types of engagement in offline settings (behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, and cognitive engagement), all of which linked together For distance education, the author only concentrated on adult learners who studied from home and had a variety of responsibilities, including family, work, and other obligations According to the author, adult students show that their learning performance is not influenced much by online courses if they are familiar with the type of learning before or because of their experience, social and academic integration When they are interested in learning, they make every effort to study Their full attention is paid to what they are studying to take initiative to learn new topics They cooperate with their peers and finish projects or assignments on time Furthermore, four categories such as student motivation, attention/self-regulation, active learning and level of academic challenge and intellectual work, which have impacts on engagement among online students only, are mentioned in this research As it can be seen in the conclusion of the study that teachers play an extremely important role in increasing student involvement. Especially, constant feedback should be provided on students' learning progress by teachers who maintain effective communication and adopting multiple teaching styles while creating high-quality instructional designs PBL (project-based learning), case- based learning, flipped learning, and active learning, however, are not clearly stated whether to be for online settings or offline settings.
In the same year, a study on student engagement was also carried out in Vietnam, particularly to explore non-English major students’ learning engagement in task-based language learning (TBLL) in the context of a university in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.
Vu Thị Minh Tam and Tran Quoc Thao (2021) investigated three major factors which positively affect students’ learning engagement in TBLL at universities such as teacher-related factors, learning context-related factors and student-related factors. crucial in the TBLL class, while teacher-related factors and student-related factors played an indispensable role in enhancing students' speaking competence and motivating them to speak English.” Firstly, students’ language proficiency, perception and motivation are believed to be three most important factors which affect learners’ engagement in the task The higher the teacher’s language proficiency is, the more engaged the students are in learning the target language Secondly, teachers’ English proficiency has a enormous influence on the learning engagement in TBLL.’ In order to maintaining students’ beliefs and improving student engagement in learning TBLL, one of the most significant factors you should take into consideration is teaching style. Therefore, teacher-related factors play an important role in improving the students’ speaking skills Being monitors and facilitators, the teachers encourage their students to perform the activities Last but not least, facilities and materials enhance the feelings of belonging, learning and student engagement A good classroom, an example of learning context-related factor, ‘provides students relevant content, clear learning goals and feedback, opportunities to build social skills, and strategies to help students succeed.’ (page 29)
One year later (2022), Huong T.L.K researched Vietnamese student engagement in learning English in a face-to-face environment as she mentioned student engagement as one of the major reasons which cause the low level of English proficiency of Vietnamese students, especially many students cannot communicate English appropriately after graduation even though English is taught for students from the early ages Despite the fact that not few students have learnt formal English instruction from public schools to private language centers for many years, they still do not have enough English skills to communicate effectively with others after graduation (Nguyen et al., 2020) In this study, Huong reviewed several different definitions of engagement.First, student engagement is described as students’ time and energy investment in interactions with other students through educational activities which are created purposefully (Kuh, 2001), or as “the extent of a student’s active involvement in a learning activity” (Wellborns, 1991 as cited in Reeve, 2012, p.150) or as “energy and effort” that students invest in their learning (Bond et al., 2020, p.3) Second, four dimensions of engagement is explored according to the perspectives of Reeve (2012) and Reeve and Tseng (2011), including behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, cognitive engagement and agentic engagement These distinct aspects are inter- correlated (Appleton et al., 2006; Reeve, 2012) Third, the importance of student engagement in student learning is presented when student engagement relates to specific behaviors in the learning process and learning outcomes The researcher describes the vital roles of learning engagement in student academic success For instance, “the more students are engaged and empowered within their learning community, the more likely they are to channel that energy back into their learning, leading to a range of short- and long-term outcomes, that can likewise further fuel engagement” (Bond et al.,2020, p.3) Skinner and Pitzer (2012) stated that engagement is “a robust predictor of students’ learning, grades, achievement test scores, retention, and graduation” Fourth, the study describes the instrument for measuring student engagement based on four aspects of engagement (behavioral, emotional, agentic, and cognitive engagement) as well as the procedure of data collection Survey questionnaires (online and hard copies) are used for main data collection The research participants include both English-majored students and non-English-majored students. The findings of the study reveals the results of student engagement level in the direct learning setting Among the four types of student engagement, the level of cognitive engagement, behavioral and emotional engagement was reported to be at a high level while that agentic engagement was rated at a moderate level Huong also considers the impacts of participants’ genders and ages on their engagement level Finally, English majored students were found to be more engaged with learning than non-English majored students because of several reasons, such as purpose of learning English to meet the job or graduation requirements which drives to their intrinsic motivation. Therefore, Huong’s study used only a quantitative method and focused on students’ responses withdrawn from a survey questionnaire and the participants were university students.
Maria DeVito (2016) researched major factors influencing student engagement in the middle school context The researcher makes a list of influential factors including the quality of teacher instruction, the use of technology by teachers and/or students,teachers’ feedback, extra-curricular activities (sports, clubs), school climate, family engagement One of the good points in the study is that the researcher pointed out a course to course This gap exists because of different levels of students’ engagement from class to class and from school to school (Taylor & Parsons, 2011) That is, the performance of a poor achiever can be improved through positive engagement For instance, the same student may fall under the category of ‘poor achievers’ when taught by one teacher but may be recognized as ‘high achievers’ when taught by another teacher Trowler (2010) suggested, depending on the character of teacher’s influence, the dimensions of student engagement can assume different values: positive engagement, non-engagement, and negative engagement The second factor mentioned in the study is the partners in learning, particularly students’ families and communities as parents have the greatest influence on students in adjusting their learning and studying behaviors (Mutch & Collins, 2012, Jensen, 2013; Kraft & Dougherty, 2013) and communities provide additional support and resources, enhancing student motivation, engagement, and, therefore, academic achievement Another factor affecting student engagement is teacher-student interaction (Jang et al., 2010;Swiderski, 2011; Jensen, 2013; Burgess, 2015), especially teacher’s behaviour and instructional style and classroom management style Last but not least, implementing technological advances into teaching has impact on student engagement in general and students’ learning outcomes in particular In order to identify influential factors to student engagement, observation and self-report are utilized, in which behaviour was observed in terms of on-task attention, effort investment and persistence resulting in good or excellent academic performance in correlation with particular aspects of learning context Besides, a survey and focus group interview were conducted to get detailed responses on the topic Accordingly, five major groups of factors were outlined as affecting student engagement, including educational experiences, teacher- student interactions, academic challenge level, supporting classroom environment and supporting family environment Despite three main limitations shown out in the study,its findings can present considerable value for practice because they could be used to improve the situation in the school and contribute to student engagement, such as addressing student’s needs, promoting emotionally supportive classroom instead of shouting and asking for parents’ involvement.
Research gap
As can be seen clearly that the participants in these above studies were both university students and middle-school students in Vietnam and Indonesia Student engagement was investigated in the classroom context (face-to-face environment) and online setting as well Therefore, the findings of these study couldn’t point out the changes in engagement when the students grow up.
This research attempts to study both lower and higher secondary school students (a range age from 12 to 17) at the same time, who are said to be different in psychological characteristics At VAschools, the researcher was able to investigate the level of engagement in classes from Grade 6 to Grade 11 (with a wide range of English levels from basic level (Pre-KET) to advanced level (IELTS band 6.0-7.0), especially in offline setting.
Moreover, being an educator and an administrator, along with student engagement in class activities, this study should also deal with student engagement at school level and at course level for better academic performance, a lower dropout rate/school transfer and a higher number of participants in school events or competitions.
Hence, it is necessary to conduct a research to fill in the research gap mentioned,which requires much more time and efforts the researcher in particular and the board of directors in general.
Conceptual framework
According to A.L Reschly and S.L Christenson (2012), student engagement refers to active participation in academic, extra-curricular or school activities and commitment to their educational goals It drives learning, requires energy and effort and is affected by multiple contextual influences and student-related factors It is also a multidimensional construct with behavioral, cognitive, and emotional sub-types.
It should be noted that when evaluating how engaged VAschools students are in learning English, three dimensions of engagement include cognitive, behavioral, and emotional are mentioned as a tool of evaluation Also, contextual factors and student- related factors should be assessed to identify which influence student engagement most in learning English in offline setting as well as in extra-curriculum activities.
Contextual factors (family, peers and school) Student-related factors
Student engagement (in academic, and co-curricular or school-related activities)
Behavioral engagement Cognitive engagement Emotional engagement
Positive/ Indirect/ Negative Figure 2.6: Conceptual framework of student engagement
The table below explains the framework more detailed, especially the relationship between engagement, contexts and student outcomes I would use these aspects for this research in terms of questionnaires, interview questions and observation checklists. Table 2.3: Model of associations between context, engagement and student outcomes
Indicators are markers or descriptive parts inside a target construct, so indicators of engagement must be the behavioral, emotional, and cognitive features and other observable student interactions with academic activities, such as on-task behavior or homework completion.
Facilitators are explanatory causal factors that potentially influence the target and they are outside the target construct.
The results that engagement itself can produce are seen as outcomes of engagement.The distinctions among indicators, facilitators, and outcomes of engagement clarify conceptualizations and improve studies of engagement.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research questions
Data collection instruments
No Native teacher Information Subject Class/Level
3.3 Research instruments and data collection
Research instruments refer to any tools used to collect, measure and analyze data that is relevant to the research subject In this research, three instruments were utilized, particularly classroom observation checklists, survey questionnaires (student self- reports and teacher reports) and semi-structured interviews, which are discussed in details as follows.
Observation checklists are used to measure engagement at both the individual and classroom level At the individual level, observational measures assess individual students’ engagement on task behavior towards answering questions, participating in classroom tasks, The benefit of using observation techniques to study engagement is detailed and descriptive information of the contextual factors occurring with higher or lower engagement levels can be provided Observational methods also can be used to verify information about engagement collected from survey and interview techniques.
In the study, a 20-question observation checklist was designed to assess student engagement in terms of student attendance, student participation in tasks, student emotion, relations between students themselves and student-teacher relations as well as student learning outcomes.
Class observations were described in a three-step procedure below so you get a good picture of this area.
The main purpose of the session is for the observer to get a clear picture of your goals for the class and the lessons The observer will simply interview you as a teacher if necessary after viewing the teacher’s lesson plan. a What is your goal for the lesson? What do you hope students will gain from this lesson? b What do you expect students to do to achieve the stated goals? c What do you think you should do to get your students more engaged in your designed class activities? d What teaching methods will you use?
Then observation checklists were prepared readily before the class observations.
2 While-observations through camera system
The researcher observed each of the class twice and noted down the details (lessons, teachers, students, student behaviours, relationship between teachers and students, how students engaged in the lessons …) on the observation checklists.
At the beginning of the lesson, the observer asks if she can join the lesson with the teacher and the students Thus, she hopes the students act as they usually do.
The observer follows the lesson and take small notes Note-taking should be kept to a minimum and the observer can improve and expand the texts at a later stage, once the lesson has been completed Student engagement should be observed and focused cognitively, behaviorally and emotionally.
A final report should be written by the observer.
A questionnaire, a kind of research instrument, consists of a series of questions completed by a sample population to get information (Crouch and Housden, 1996). The researcher chose questionnaires in terms of student self-report and teacher report as the participants have adequate time to respond to the questions, allowing them to fully express themselves In this research, the questionnaire for the students was adapted from the study of A.L Reschly and S.L Christenson (2012) on indicators of student engagement and model of associations between context, engagement and student outcomes, which helps to identify what themes need following The items on the student self-report were also adjusted by the researcher to fit the students and real situations at VAschools The questionnaires about student engagement in class and influential factors on student engagement covered three dimensions of student engagement (behaviour, cognition and emotion) and student outcomes The participants were required to answer all the items on a five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree, with a '5' for Strongly Agree (SA), a '4' for Agree (A), a '3' for Neutral (N), a '2' for Disagree (D), and a '1' for Strongly Disagree (SD).
To obtain the best valid results, the questionnaires with only simple words used were written in English so that all VA students would have no trouble comprehending the questions The questionnaires for students were delivered directly for further conversation between the researcher and respondents on issues that needed clarity. Participants were informed of the study's purpose and the importance of their contributions are given complete freedom and adequate time to complete the questionnaires and the interview.
Interviews are defined as interactions in which one person (an interviewer) attempts to collect information from another person (an interviewee) by asking questions on their opinions about an issue, such as their study, life or experiences.
Data collection procedures
Both teachers' and students' semi-structured interviews in this study consisted of two sections: the first section, "Background Information," would be followed by "Main Interview Questions" in the second section All the key interview questions were designed to get three components of student engagement three categories: cognitive, emotional and behavioral categories.
According to the conceptual framework in Figure 2.6, all the questions in the interview worksheets focus on factors that have influence on student engagement such as school relational climate (peers, teachers), learning styles and learning tasks… This kind of information was utilized along with the results of the observation checklist, self-reports from both teachers and students to provide a picture of VAschools students’ learning engagement and school engagement, from which suitable solutions will be withdrawn for the situations at the time of study and for the current students in Chapter 5.
Data was collected in the second semester during the academic school year 2022- 2023. The questionnaires were pre-tested before being presented to the sample to address significant issues with research tools such as validity, reliability, and objectivity Firstly, a questionnaire and semi-structured interview were randomly administered to 3 students and one teacher who were not participants This was done to highlight ambiguous or poorly stated questions in the questionnaire and the interview worksheet to determine whether the instructions to participants are clear After that, these students and teachers individually take part in the interview to express their ideas This was
Data collection was divided into two separate categories including school engagement and student engagement in class.
Regarding school engagement, the data which was supplied by administration staff was analyzed and followed by the questionnaire and group interviews for school engagement The participants would be both the engaged students on the list and the disengaged students at the same levels and ages.
Regarding to student engagement in class, a teacher meeting was held so that the teachers could report the issues on student engagement in their classes (in written and oral form) Before that, the teacher reports were sent to VAschools teachers online so that they had time to think about the questions.
Then observations were carried out at 13 classes studying Global English and IGCSE English by the researcher during the second semester of 2022-2023 academic year, starting 3 rd April Data collection from observations commenced one week after the mid-term examination to make sure that all the influential factors by exams were eliminated This process took place within April (one month) when the students didn’t have any tests or examination The classes observed had different sizes and at various levels Each day of EFL program is divided into 4 periods, each of which lasts 45 minutes, so the researcher only observed 2 separate classes per day due to the variation in length of classes Observations were conducted during regular scheduled class hours (1.45 pm – 5.00 pm with an interval of 15 minutes) To obtain observational data that best represented the typical engagement climate of each classroom, the observer accessed the camera system with sound which was set on her personal computer at her office where its camera data was stored and reviewed if necessary Each class was observed every two weeks or twice in total so that the observer could compare the student engagement of the same participants at two separate times.
40 copies of the student self-report were given directly to the students during school time The questionnaires included questions about their engagement in class and factors that impact their engagement The survey was administered at the end of the second semester of the academic year 2022-2023, and the students were asked to answer the questions with reference to their experience in that semester The data was collected and summarized within two weeks Then semi-structured interviews were conducted for more detailed information The responses were note-taken by the researcher and then analyzed.
Reliability and validity of the study
According to Fraenkel & Wallen (1996), reliability and validity are parts of the criteria used to evaluate research tools For example, the validity of an instrument must continually be assessed in the context of the researcher's beliefs about specific regions or topics The survey questions were developed following the study's aims and objectives and the research concerns being addressed They are written in the simplest way to make sure all the participants from PRE-KET level can easily understand Item responses may be written in English or Vietnamese, depending the respondents’ English level and preference Moreover, only closed-ended questions were used in the questionnaires to reduce the chances of respondents supplying false information This indicated the reliability of the instruments The instrument's content is validated by consulting with an experienced native teacher, Rossman Matthew and Steven Slade,
Testing to see if the sample can accurately represent the material being measured under study is known as content validity (Orodho, 2008) Additionally, by determining if the questionnaire was pertinent to the study's questions, the two experienced native teachers who possess Master degrees provided their feedback and suggestions on the questionnaires, interview questions and class observation checklist.
The respondents' scores were calculated through two formulae in Excel (Average similar to Mean on SPSS and STDEV similar to Standard Deviation on SPSS) and double checked online on the website https://www.standarddeviationcalculator.io/ to ensure their validity and reliability.
Summary
The chapter includes a description of the study design and what types of research instruments were utilized It also discusses the validity and reliability of these instruments (such as observation checklists, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews) The analysis and presentation of collected findings as well as the discussion of such discoveries will be the focus of chapter 4.
In this chapter, the researcher presents the research results after the data collection and analysis.
Data of school engagement was first gathered and analyzed, followed by data on student engagement in class.
Regarding to student engagement in school activities, a list of engaged students participating in school competitions or activities using English in the academic 2021-
A teacher meeting was held to collect data on student engagement in class in both written form (teacher reports) and direct reports in the meeting Then observations were conducted to helps the researcher to compare with what was reported by the teachers 40 selected students, two at random in each class, were the sample for the surveys and interviews.
Results
4.1.1 Results of student engagement in school activities (Appendix 3)
This report aims to examine students’ sense of belonging and participation at school which are stated as two of the most important measures of student engagement.
In the research, 40 copies of questionnaires on school engagement were sent to 40 selected students (a half of them participated every school event or competition and the other half did not even though they were at the same English levels and ages) They had enough time for thinking and giving their responses and were explained clearly to make sure they were not confused 40 copies were all returned back for data collection.
In the survey, the seven first items are written for students’ sense of belonging to their school The next thirteen items express reasons why the students like and want to become a member of the school The last five statements indicate the extent to which students participate in school activities/events On a scale from one to five, each item's statement was given a Likert score, with one for strong disagreement and five being the most strongly agreed The participants only put a tick in the column showing the best scale for them.
Concerning the data analysis, the data were analyzed in terms of mean (M) and standard deviation (SD) According to Table 7, the mean score of sense of belonging to school was reasonably high (M=3.86; SD=0.77) while the value for participation in school activities was just M=3.03 with SD=1.16 These figures indicate that the majority of the students felt proud to be a member of their school but did not like participating in school events as it can be seen the big gap in levels of agreement the students showed, from level 1 (strongly disagree) to level 5 (strongly agree).
Table 4.1 Descriptive statistic on school engagement
1 Sense of belonging to school 3.86 0.77
Being interviewed, the most engaged students were willing to take part in every school events, competitions or activities because of the rewards from the competitions (money, gifts…) One third of the students looked for opportunities to compete with their peers at both VAschools and other public schools in Vung Tau city 12% of the students fully expected to get experience and be popular About 8% of the students participated in English competitions for contribution to school development The others expected to be popular since they appeared on VAschools’ website/ facebook.
In contrast, the disengaged group revealed several reasons for their no interest in extra- curriculum activities, such as low self-confidence, English proficiency, fear to be in front of the public, personality … Three fourth of the students explained that they would never participate in any competitions if they know they cannot compete with their peers or students from public schools 100% of the high school students were disengaged in school activities which were not suitable to their styles and their ages. Challenges were told to be a motivator to the students.
The figure of competitors in the previous academic year proved what was mentioned above Out of three school events and competitions in that academic year, the designing costumes for Halloween attracted the most students Only twenty students (accounting for 7% of the school students in total) joined in The VA English Challenge, an English competition and the same students competed in another event using English,even though their English proficiency is high enough to meet all the requirements.Only small number of students were interested in clubs (PR clubs, photography clubs or English clubs…) One of the reasons was that VAschools students studied 16 periods of English per week Hence, English clubs were not their preference.
Therefore, the school administrators and school board may use the results for future policies and school reforms in which student engagement in English learning and school event participation should be developed.
4.1.2 Results of student engagement in class
First and foremost, the observation checklist (Appendix 6) was designed based on the Model of association between context, engagement and student outcome (A.L Reschly and S.L Christenson, handbook of Research on Student Engagement, 2012) to describe the three dimensions of engagement (behavioral engagement, emotional engagement and cognitive engagement) and student outcomes Cognitive engagement comprised two items numbered 4 and 5 Behavioral engagement includes Attendance (with 3 items numbered from 1 to 3) and Participation (5 items from 6 to 10) The 11 - to - 15 items belong to emotional engagement, followed by 2 items of relational engagement Moreover, academic engagement was added with 3 items showing the student outcomes after the lesson.
In this study, the researcher used the Mode, one of the values to measure central tendency, to express which item in the data set occurred most frequently to identify which students were absent most frequently.
Table 4.2 Results of Student Attendance through the class observations
No Attendance 1 st observation 2 nd observation
Mode Class/level Mode Class/level
As seen in Table 4.2, the most disengaged students seemed to be 9 th & 11 th graders who were going to graduate from the school or going to take IELTS tests by the end of June Mode of 5 indicates that the number of absent students in a class per day is the highest, 5 students/class (approximately 21.7 %), which showed an alarming signal. Four boys at IELTS were once found in the restrooms playing games together during the class hours.
Looking closely into their self-reports and their responses to the quick interview questions, 100% the students couldn’t wake up to school or be late after the nap at noon 3 out of 12 absent students stated that nobody taking them to the class was the main point while the others refused to give their answers Those who were late for school had the same reason The four boys who skipped class confirmed that they were not interested and motivated to learn the EFL lessons in the afternoon.
Behavioral engagement – Participation; Emotional engagement & Cognitive engagement
These indicators were measured at the same time through observations by the researcher Details as follows.
Cognitive engagement is defined as the extent to which students are engaged in activities and discussion that develops analytical and synthetic cognitive abilities ‘Are the students involved in activities that generate how and why questions linked to critical thinking?’ indicates student curiosity and their involvement in cognitive tasks is presented by the percentage of students who participated in the cognitive tasks at hand such as discussions, group work in the class These are the two items of cognitive engagement In general, pQ.5% is a quite high percentage in the whole school, which indicated that more than a half of the students at PRE-KET level and above were engaged in cognitive tasks such as discussions or group work… Out of these students groups, it can be seen that cognitive engagement is not equal to different classes even though they are at the same level The percentage of curious students decreases as they are not involved in activities generating how and why questions linked to critical thinking (see more in Table 4.3.)
Table 4.3 Percentages of the engaged students in cognitive activities
(250 students in 13 classes observed in total)
No Cognitive engagement Percentage (in a class) Percentage (in the school)
4 Do the students in each class PRE-KET 1: 65% actively take part in the cognitive PRE-KET 2: 41,2%
KET 2: 62.5% tasks? (discussions, group work…) KET 1: 23.5%
5 Are the students involved in PRE-KET 1: 10% activities that generate how and why PRE-KET 2: 30%KET 2: 29.2% questions linked to critical thinking? KET 1: 8.3%
Behavioral engagement – Participation; Emotional engagement
Behavioral engagement is also observed in terms of Attentiveness with 5 items from 6 to 10 (i.e paying attention in class, sleeping in the class, asking to go out during the lesson, encouraging peers to participate in class activities actively and autonomously), Rule compliance (most students follow/refuse to follow instructor directions or class rules – item numbered 10).
Regarding to attentiveness and rule compliance, most of the students in all 13 classes were very attentive to the lessons and took notes in their notebooks autonomously; except 2-3 students in each class who fell asleep or did nothing during the lessons observed An average of 83% followed the teacher’s instructions or directions The most engaged students (acted as group leaders) encouraged their teams to complete the assigned tasks and wanted to win the games and this figure just accounted for less than 20%.
Table 4.4 Detailed result of student participation in class
(250 students in 13 classes observed in total)
6 How often does a student ask to once or twice Just one or two go out during the lesson? And students went out twice how long do they come back to within 45’ and turned class? back to the class after
Reasons: drink water; go to the restrooms
7 Do the students pay attention or just only 2-3 students sleep in class? in each class fell asleep
83% (on average) or did nothing
8 Do the students do the assigned were attentive and tasks autonomously during the followed teacher’s lesson? instructions or directions.
9 Do the students follow or refuse to follow the teacher’s directions or class rules?
10 Do students encourage their peers to join in the class activities with them?
< 20% team leaders and wanted to win the games
Emotional engagement and relational engagement (building relationship with peers and teachers) were described in Table 4.4, followed by outcomes that the students
Table 4.5 Description of observation results
11 Are students interested in or bored with the lessons and class activities?
83% students were interested in the class activities while the rest felt bored or showed no emotions.
12 Do they show their tiredness during or after the lessons?
About 20 students (both girls and boys) stayed in the classes and slept during breaks.
13 Do any of the students show their pride when they achieve their goal of each task?
Only an eleven-year-old girl in FCE 1.
14 Does anyone show his worry or anxiety during English lesson? just new students students or lower level
15 What other emotional reactions are shown or withdrawn from learning tasks?
Enthusiasm, enjoyment, satisfaction, vitality were shown on the engaged students’ faces Disengaged students also showed boredom, disinterest, frustration, sadness
16 What is the relationship between the students in a team/group?
They work well with their partners during discussions/ pair work/ group work, except 6 students with autism in total.
In FCE 1 and IELTS 5-6, 2 groups seemed to work with the same partners at the observations even though they were asked to change their partners.
17 What is the relationship between the students and the teacher in a team/group?
They easily talked to their teachers,shared problems … except class FCE 2.
18 Are tasks completed on time and properly? depending on the students’ level, ranged between a quarter to one third.
19 Do the student performance exceed what is required? less than 10% the best students at high levels (FCE, IELTS 5-6)
20 Do the students get any good scores or feedback from the teachers during the lesson? no scored recorded
Discussion
With the three measuring indicators of student engagement (behaviour, emotion and cognition), the researcher investigated the correlation between student engagement and its outcomes The results indicated that student engagement had significant association with the contextual factors, students’ motivation, active learning and outcomes More students participated actively in school events when the events meet their expectations such as rewards (money, gifts…) or at least being recognized through online posts on the school fanpage… Students were engaged cognitively, behaviorally and emotionally in school when their teachers motivated their students by instructional practices and they received social-emotional support from their teachers, parents, and peers They also showed their high engagement in learning English through their high self-efficacy, learning goals or targets, their effort The engaged students frequently experienced positive emotions so their teachers rated them high on academic performance.
The data of the research was collected from secondary and high school students at VAschools – a small private school in Vung Tau – at a period of time Will the results be applied to the other 15 branches of VAschools in Ho Chi Minh city and Can Tho. The facts show that there are more cultural similarities than differences about how student engagement is related to its contexts, antecedents, and outcomes.
Another important research area should be taken into consideration There may be different indicators of engagement depending on the age of the child, and these different types of engagement may change and evolve over time For example, students might not be cognitively engaged in learning until they are able to self-regulate and become intentional learners (Fredricks et al., 2004) The researcher should design different questionnaires and interview questions for different groups of participants because of their different ages and psychological features.
Another finding is a positive correlation between students’ learning engagement and the influential factors This indicates that their engagement in learning English was positively affected by learner-related factors and learning context-related factors (teachers, peers and other school-related factors) The researcher questioned how peer instructions and tutoring change disengaged students’ involvement in learning English as well as their learning outcomes and how good teacher-student relation changes student engagement in learning Global English at FCE 2 class.
Summary
The purpose of this chapter was to study and analyze the data acquired using observation checklist, survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews Firstly,both qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed to get a better understanding of student engagement in learning General English (Global English and IGCSE English) and school events The data covered all the cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions Secondly, the findings showed the investigations several factors influenced student engagement in class and school activities, namely student-related factors, family-related factors and school-related factors (including English programmes, school events, EFL staff and peers) Among these, the student-related factors and teacher-related factors play an important role in improving the student engagement in learning English at school as well as school events and how they impacted student engagement.