Page 110 - Getting of the fence

Chapter 5
component (Skinner et al., 2009). Emotional engagement, also called affective or psychological engagement (Lee, 2014), focuses on states “that are germane to students’ emotional involvement during learning activities such as enthusiasm, interest, and enjoyment” (Skinner, Furrer, Marchand, & Kindermann, 2008, p. 766). This includes affective reactions, such as whether students feel good and interested and whether they enjoy learning new things. Behavioural engagement is described by Skinner et al. (2008) as “the students’ effort, attention, and persistence during the initiation and execution of learning activities” (p. 766). Indicators are, for example, amount of effort, persistence and active involvement (Philp & Duchesne, 2016), which are expressed in trying hard to do well in school and participating in class discussions.
Another notable feature of a motivational conceptualization of engagement is the presence of its opposite, labelled disaffection (Skinner et al. 2009). Importantly, disaffection is more than merely the absence of engagement, because it “refers to the occurrence of behaviours and emotions that reflect maladaptive motivational states” (Skinner et al. 2008, p. 767). Disaffected behaviours include lack of initiation and passivity, expressed in students doing just enough to get by and students pretending to act as if they were participating. Disaffected emotions include feelings of sadness, boredom, and anxiety, expressed by students feeling worried, discouraged or frustrated.
5.2.4 Students’ view of the importance of foreign language literature lessons as an internal manifestation of motivation
In the same way that student engagement is regarded as the external manifestation of a motivated student, how students view the importance of foreign language literature lessons can be regarded as an internal manifestation of motivation. Knowing how students value foreign language literature is extremely relevant in view of the different ways in which literary focus and language learning are moving towards being integrated. This information can assist teachers in creating congruent instructional environments and, from there, promote desirable constructive frictions (Vermunt & Verloop, 1999). According to Vermunt and Verloop (1999), constructive frictions “represent a challenge for students to increase their skill in a learning or thinking strategy” (p. 270). In the foreign language literature lesson, by first creating a situation of congruence through, for example, addressing specific vocabulary in a literary text, teachers can move towards constructive frictions by bringing in elements such as literary terminology or biographical information.
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