VOCATIONAL-ORIENTED DIGITAL LEARNING TASKS, STUDENT ENGAGEMENT, AND SPEAKING ANXIETY IN EFL CLASSROOMS: EVIDENCE FOR A VOCATIONAL IDENTITY MISMATCH

Abstract

Vocational high school students in EFL classrooms often show low speaking engagement and high anxiety, and tasks rarely combine digital delivery with vocational content. Using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, this study tested whether vocational-oriented digital task-based language teaching (VO-DTBLT) improved engagement and reduced anxiety more than conventional instruction. A non-equivalent control-group quasi-experiment compared an experimental group (n = 30) receiving digital vocational tasks with a control group (n = 30) receiving conventional instruction over two weeks at a public vocational high school in Indragiri Hulu, Riau. Gain scores on student engagement and speaking anxiety questionnaires were analyzed with one-way MANOVA, followed by semi-structured interviews with two purposively selected experimental-group students. Groups were equivalent at baseline. The multivariate effect on the gains was significant, Wilks' Λ = .799, F(2, 57) = 7.16, p = .002, but reversed: the control group gained more in engagement and anxiety reduction, with far more variable experimental-group anxiety gains. Interviews linked engagement to whether task content matched students' vocational specialization, consistent with vocational identity theory, whereas control-group students' identity was already secure and self-chosen. Within a short intervention window, VO-DTBLT did not outperform conventional instruction, a pattern better explained by vocational-identity mismatch than by a failure of digital or vocational instruction.