Online Interaction and Learning Engagement of Senior High School Students in a Less-Developed Region in China

Abstract

This questionnaire-based survey research was conducted among 571 English language learners of a less-developed region China. Quantitative data was collected to explore the internal structure of high school students’ online interaction and learning engagement and reveal the relationship of the two research constructs. Results showed that there are three factors of high school learners’ online interaction including teacher-student interaction, student-student interaction and student-content interaction. There are four factors of learning engagement including cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement, emotional engagement and social engagement. Correlation analysis confirmed the positive correlation between learners’ online interaction and learning engagement. The results of the stepwise regression analysis further proved that the interaction between learners and learning materials as well as the interaction among participants have the strongest prediction for learning engagement and can positively predict all variables of learning engagement. The research results provided pedagogical implications for high school online language education in minority areas, and provided inspirations for designing online courses in the future.