Engaging students in an online situated language learning environment

Abstract

Abstract Previous studies have emphasized the relationship between students' engagement and learning performance, and yet the context in which students and the teacher interact to engage each other has been ignored. In order to engage college students who are learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in the context of a big class, this study developed a system, which is an online situated language learning environment, to support the students, the teachers, and the teaching assistants (TAs) to communicate synchronously and asynchronously in and after class. A sample of 118 undergraduate students was recruited to participate in an E-meeting to express their thoughts and opinions toward the drama, and Post an Opinion to predict subsequent scenes in the enfolding plot. Students were also required to take an Assessment online, after reading each episode of the drama. In this study, the behavioral, emotional, and cognitive dimensions of students' intensive and reciprocal engagement were observed and recorded in the system for students to reflect on their language usage and further improve their language learning and for the teachers and the TAs to monitor and identify their students' difficulties and provide further scaffoldings. Students' language learning progress was also revealed through a questionnaire and the pre- and post-tests. Based on the interpretation of the result, suggestions for future studies are also discussed. Keywords: student engagement E-meeting situated learningstudent–teacher interaction(a)synchronous communication Acknowledgments This article was supported in part by the National Science Council in the Republic of China, Taiwan (NSC 99-2410-H-224-021). Notes Yu-Fen Yang received her PhD with an emphasis on language and reading development from the Graduate School of Education at University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently a professor in the Graduate School of Applied Foreign Languages at National Yunlin University of Science and Technology in Taiwan. Her research focus is mainly on learning psychology of reading and writing, computer-assisted language learning, language education for special needs, and language assessment.