Learner engagement in comprehension-based and production-based tasks: Insights from young learners through an ecological perspective

Abstract

This study examined and compared young learners (YLs)' task engagement across cognitive, behavioural, and emotional dimensions between comprehension-based and production-based tasks in second language (L2) classrooms and explored factors contributing to their engagement and disengagement from an ecological perspective. Twenty-five students from a third-grade class participated in this mixed-methods study. Data collection involved task engagement questionnaires, classroom observation, focus groups, field notes, teacher's reflective journal, and project documents. The results showed that L2 learners perceived significantly greater behavioural engagement in comprehension-based than production-based tasks. No significant differences were observed in YLs'perceived emotional and cognitive engagement. Learners' task engagement was influenced by various individual and contextual factors across different layers in the ecosystem synergistically, including learner-related, peer-related, teacher-related and materials-related factors at the microsystem level; task adaptation at the mesosystem level; textbook task design at the exosystem level; and curriculum reform at the macrosystem level. The study provides insights for stakeholders within the educational ecosystem, such as textbook writers, teacher educators, and L2 teachers, to enhance task design and address factors affecting YLs' engagement in L2 classrooms.