Exploring student engagement in task-based and communicative language classrooms

Abstract

This study investigates the engagement of young people in foreign language learning. Specifically, engagement is defined as a metaconstruct consisting of the following components: cognitive, emotional, and social. An attempt was made to quantify these individual engagement components within task-based and communicative-oriented lessons. We employed electrocardiographic and accelerometric measurements to monitor learners’ physiological responses to engagement during regular German classes. The second part of the project was a questionnaire-based study measuring the subjective opinions of learners about their engagement. The results of the research support the adoption of a task-based approach. We observed the highest level of engagement during productive tasks, which can serve as a rationale for teachers to increase the number of productive tasks compared to receptive ones. Moreover, including the peer-learning component in the activities appeared to be of considerable importance due to its role in building intrinsic motivation to learn and in stimulating the growth of social competences.