Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Research Background
Since a new round of curriculum reform has been put into effect，Ihe perspectiveof educational research in classroom teaching gradually shifted from teachers tostudents, and the research on student engagement has become a hot topic for a time.In June 2001，the outline of curriculum reform of elementary education (trialimplementation) issued by China pointed out that，in teaching process, the teachersshould “pay attention to cultivate students' independences and autonomousparticipations, guild students to question, investigate, explore and learn by doing，andpromote students to study actively and individually under teachers，guidances","change the situation of curriculum implementation which emphasizes too much onreception learning, learning by rote and mechanical training, to advocate students toparticipate actively，explore willingly and leam diligently, to cultivate students'abilities of collecting and processing information, the abilities of acquiring newknowledge，the abilities of analyzing and solving problems and the abilities ofcommunication and cooperation". Thus，under the guidance of new cmriculum reform，student engagement has become a roadmap and direction for reform of classroomteaching. Putting the idea of student engagement into specific subject classroomteaching is the aim of research on student engagement.
……….
1.2 Research Purpose, Significance and Method
The main purpose of this research is to investigate the specific circumstance ofstudent engagement in English classroom teaching in junior high school. Thisresearch, on the basis of predecessors' researches, aims to know: (1) the situation ofstudent engagement (including behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement andemotional engagement); (2) the situation of influence factors on student engagement(including learning environment, teacher's teaching and self-efficacy); and (3) thecorrelation between student engagement and its influence factors. By doing this, itattempts to explore some strategies to improve student engagement in Englishclassroom teaching，so that the initiative and positivily of student engagement can bepromoted and enhanced. On the one hand, empirical research of student engagement is a research topic inrecent dozen years, and it has an important significance for education research. Somestudies have pointed out that, student engagement itself is an aim of teaching，and it isalso a basic principle of teaching theory and practice. At present, a great deal ofresearches on student engagement focuses on mathematics classroom teachingprocess or physics classroom teaching process，etc. However, few scholars make theresearch on student engagement in English classroom teaching process. Moreover,even though there are some researches on student engagement in English classroomteaching process，the subjects are mostly about senior high school students or collegestudents.
…….
Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Definition
In western literature, participation is derived from Latin partiepare, thecorresponding English noun is participation, means the act of participating or the stateof be related to larger whole. Nowadays, engagement or involvement is often used inliterature. Especially the word engagement, most western official institutionsincluding National Center for School Engagement use student engagement torepresent the meaning of the act of becoming engaged or the state of being engaged.In western literature, the thought of engagement had been put forward in the ancientGreek politics. However，the modem sense of engagement refers to politicalengagement~the original thinking derived from human rights in modem democratictheory. After World War Two，the concept of engagement is widely used into economy,culture, education and other social fields，and it obtains widespread social significance.In the 1950s，a massive student movement happened in Europe. It is the first timepeople introduced the word engagement in the field of education and further enlargethe using range of the concept. From then on, engagement，as a kind of thought ineducational democratic management, is accepted by western gradually.Some scholars put forward engagement in the perspective of human resource,thinking that engagement is a state that a person's thought and feeling are devoted to acommunity environment where individuals are encouraged to make contribvitions togroup objectives and share responsibilities. In this sense，engagement is the input ofthought and feeling，and it is a real self-input (Robert，1970/2001).
………
2.2 Related Theories
Constructivism psychology is regarded as a revolution in education psychology.It emerged in the 1980s，and it is a forther development from behaviorism tocognitivism in psychology history. The founder of constructivism psychology isPiaget. Then after driven by Vygotsky, Ausubel, Brunei and others, this theory hadfully developed and formed in a relatively complete system. In constructivism, learning is not the transfer and transmission of knowledgefrom outside to inside but the process of actively constructing knowledge of studentsin life experience. That is，through the interaction between new knowledge andoriginal knowledge, people enrich, improve and change their own knowledge^stem.Piaget (1979/1981) thought, construction of children's knowledge is through theinteraction between children and their surrounding environment, graduallyconstructing knowledge about the outside world, and then their own cognitivestructures get development and promotion.
…….
Chapter 3 Research Design....... 25
3.1 Subjects.......25
3.2 Research Questions....... 25
3.3 Instruments .......26
3.3.1 Questionnaire....... 26
3.3.2 Interview....... 26
3.3.3 Classroom Observation .......27
3.4 Procedure.......27
Chapter 4 Results Analysis and Discussion....... 29
4.2 Results Analysis and Discussion on Classroom Observation....... 46
4.3 Results Analysis and Discussion on Interview....... 47
4.4 Summary .......49
Chapter 5 Suggestions....... 51
5.1 For The Teachers....... 51
5.2 For The Students....... 53
5.3 For The Teaching Material....... 54
5.4 For The Educational Administration Department .......55
Chapter 5 Suggestions
5.1 For The Teachers
(1) To change teaching view; English classroom teaching is a process ofcooperation and interaction between students and teachers. During this teachingprocess，the students are the main subjects and the teachers are guiders, helpers andfacilitators for students. Therefore, in English classroom teaching process, theteachers should change their views on students and themselves, guiding the studentsto engage in classroom activity with the main subject status. Besides, in order tocultivate students' interests and senses of engagement in English, the teachers shouldchange the interaction mode from input to input and output together.
(2) To innovate teaching mode: Students in junior high school have strongcuriosities. Anew teaching mode can arouse their interests and enthusiasms especiallytheir engagements in learning. So，firstly, the teachers could prepare some questionsin English class according to teaching aim and students' knowledge levels. By modeof question interaction, the teachers could guide students to think and constructknowledge autonomously. Secondly, the teachers could use mode of discussioninteraction, giving enough time for students to discuss and construct knowledgespeedily. Thirdly, the teachers could cultivate students' initiatives, independences andcreativities by mode of autonomous learning，so that the students could engageactively and their abilities of learning can be improved.
……..
Conclusion
This research used the combination of questionnaires, classroom observation andinterview to investigate the situation of student engagement, the situation of influencefactors on student engagement, and the correlation between student engagement andits influence factors. The findings of this research are as follows: The first research question examines the situation of student engagement. Theresults of the present study show that student's behavioral engagement is better thanstudent's cognitive engagement and emotional engagement，and student's emotionalengagement is better than student's cognitive engagement. In different backgroundinformation of students，there are significant differences of emotional engagement indifferent grades and titles, and there is significant difference of behavioralengagement in different titles.
…………
Reference (omitted)
