STUDENTS’ SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT IN LEARNING UKRAINIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE REMOTELY

Abstract

The article analyzes students’ perceptions about their engagement in a Ukrainian language classroom. Considering the context of a remote delivery, prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus is on learners’ social engagement, a category still unexplored, but relevant for the context studied. The analysis relies on some well-established theoretical frameworks of engagement, which view this concept as referring to what students do, say, think, feel, and make in classrooms. We view engagement as the energy that learners actually spend toward their achievement, contributing to their success in learning [8]. The concept of engagement is multifaceted and includes a number of levels, commonly discussed as: behavioral, emotional, cognitive [2], and agentic [10; 11]. Particularly with respect to remote learning and teaching, the concept of social engagement proved to be significant, justifying the focus of the present study (Sivachennko & Nedashkivska, 2021). The study targets students enrolled in beginner, intermediate, and advanced Ukrainian language courses at a postsecondary institution. The sample includes responses from 23 undergraduate students. The data is based on a written student survey, designed to address the multiple levels of student engagement. The qualitative analysis, focusing on social engagement includes the discussion of two sub-categories: social interaction and social connection, underscoring their role in remote language teaching and learning. The results also highlight their relevance not only for a remote classroom, but going beyond as potentially relevant for other contexts of technology-assisted language learning and teaching. The article concludes with some practical recommendations for educators that may assist in promoting social engagement in their classrooms. Key words: Ukrainian language, Ukrainian language learning and teaching, student engagement, social engagement, remote format, remote language teaching, remote language learning and teaching.