Learner engagement in the autonomy-supportive environment

The enquiry into learner engagement, a concept widely researched in educational psychology, has recently gained momentum in the field of language acquisition (e.g., Mercer & Dörnyei, forthcoming; Mercer, 2019; Philp & Duchesse, 2016). The study of the construct with reference to language learning offers a promise of providing teaching recommendations that could promote cognitive and emotional involvement, active participation and sustained effort as well as help prevent disengagement and disaffection. In this longitudinally designed classroom-based study, we sought to investigate the link between engagement and motivation to learn English as a foreign language over a course of a semester in a naturally occurring school environment, in which a special premium was put on fostering learners’ autonomy. The main objective, which to the best of our knowledge has not been pursued yet, was to see if deliberate action aimed at increasing learners’ autonomy could enhance their engagement. To this end, a group of 16-year-olds were asked to fill in the Language Learning Orientations Scale (Noels et al., 2000), Basic Psychological Needs Scale (Deci et al., 2001) and Learner Engagement Scale (Reeve & Tseng, 2011) on five occasions spanning their first semester of study in a secondary school. Questionnaire-based data were juxtaposed with interviews and observations. Descriptive and correlational analyses show interdependence between different facets of motivation and engagement and qualitative findings explain shifts in engagement intensity in terms of students’ perceptions of autonomy, competence and relatedness. It also turned out that an autonomy-supportive climate may be an important variable in accounting for sustained effort and involvement in language learning. Practical and theoretical implications are also discussed.