Agentic engagement

Since second or foreign language learning is a?.m long term endeavor and learners may lose their initial interest and enthusiasm, they need to be kept motivated. Student engagement has been recommended as one approach to sustaining such at risk learners at high levels of motivation. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the dimensions of student engagement and language learning motivation among Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 117 intermediate EFL learners at the Iran Language Institute (ILI), Gorgan adult male branch, Iran, having been selected as the participants of the study through convenience sampling, were given two questionnaires: Student Engagement Questionnaire (Hart, Stewart, & Jimerson, 2011; Reeve, 2013) and Language Learning Motivation Scale (Noels, Pelletier, Clément, & Vallerand, 2000). The quantitative data gathered through these questionnaires were analyzed by the software package of SPSS, version 24. The results of the correlation tests showed that there were significant relationships between language learning motivation and each dimension of student engagement, with the cognitive engagement having the highest correlation. Further, the results of multiple regression analyses indicated that cognitive engagement was the sole predictor of language learning motivation.

Previous studies generally showed that achievement goals are linked with academic engagement. However, the association between the newly-developed model of achievement goals (i.e. the 3*2 model) and agentic engagement has received relatively little attention. Furthermore, the underlying mechanism of this relationship is unclear, more specifically, among university students. Guided by the assumptions of the control-value theory of emotions, epistemic curiosity could be a potential mediator. The current study aimed to explore the mediating role of epistemic curiosity in the relationship between achievement goals and agentic engagement among 350 university students from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in the academic year of 2019-2020. Participants completed the measures of the Achievement Goals Questionnaire, Epistemic Curiosity Scale, and Agentic Engagement Scale. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 24.0 and AMOS software. The findings showed that epistemic curiosity significantly mediated the association between approach goals and avoidance goals with agentic engagement (P<0.001). Overall, the findings offer new evidence on the association between variables of the present study and shed light on the underlying processes. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.