A Study of High School Students’ English Learning Enjoyment (ELE) in China

Yibo  Zhi; Honggang Liu

doi:10.31849/utamax.v3i3.7282

Yibo Zhi Shenyang No.120 High School, Shenyang City, China
Honggang Liu School of Foreign Languages, Northeast Normal University, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31849/utamax.v3i3.7282

Keywords: English Learning Enjoyment (ELE), ELE-Teacher, ELE-Private, ELE-Atmosphere, school students in China, General levels

Abstract

English Learning Enjoyment (ELE) potentially sustains students’ motivation of English learning, especially under China’s fresh context where National English Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools issued in 2017 has directed teachers to cultivate students’ core competencies of English as a subject. Its theoretical framework was established by Dewaele and MacIntyre (2014) on Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) and then subcategorized by Li Chengchen et al. (2018) into ELE-Private, ELE-Teacher, and ELE-Atmosphere. The three dimensions have thus made it possible for the following quantitative research, where an enormous space remains on senior high school students in China, despite exhaustive studies beforehand with either overseas background or distinctive educational contexts. This quantitative study will concentrate on the general levels of ELE, both overall and for each dimension. Thus with Li Chengchen et al.’s (2018) ELE Scale came the investigations of 351 senior high school students of all grades with diverse academic levels, whose data were analyzed through SPSS in terms of general levels (both mean values and standard differentiations). The results have looked at an intermediate and converging level of Overall ELE with a more prominent level of ELE-Teacher than ELE-Private and ELE-Atmosphere. Inspired by the results comes a disclosure of students’ positivity in English learning under the guise of their inclination to teachers’ efforts instead of automatic drive or constructive environment for authentic language development. Thus an integrated approach is recommended by dint of an elaborate picture of ELE-Private and ELE-Atmosphere to reclaim the lost authentic “self” of senior high school students.

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Author Biographies

Yibo Zhi , Shenyang No.120 High School, Shenyang City, China

Yibo Zhi is a senior high school teacher of Shenyang No.120 High School, China, who has undertaken English teaching for 4 years, having covered a complete round of 3-year teaching session as required for students’ graduation. He has focused on research of latest National English Matriculation Examination (or Gaokao) especially its new test items (Continuous Writing), students’ English learning psychology, and senior high school English teaching methodology

Honggang Liu, School of Foreign Languages, Northeast Normal University, China

Honggang Liu works as full professor of applied linguistics in the Department of English, School of Foreign Languages, Northeast Normal University, China. He also serves as the Executive Vice Dean of China Center for Research in Primary and Secondary Foreign Language Education. He is now the Associate Editor of Frontiers in Psychology. His academic interests include individual differences in language learning, psychology of language teacher, and social class in English education.

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