The impact of choice provision on students' affective engagement in tasks : a flow analysis

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the impact of choice on students’ affective engagement in 19 tasks in an EFL classroom. The choice provision techniques for the tasks included student-generated choice, teacher-assigned choice and no choice. The study was conducted with one group of 26 students who were taking the English 102 course offered at Middle East Technical University (METU). Data was collected using a survey of student affective engagement completed immediately after each task. Individual student means were used to investigate the motivational potential of tasks, and the number of participants in flow and apathy for each task. Data was further analyzed using ANOVA tests for choice and interactional pattern, a MANOVA test for the impact of choice, interactional pattern, and their mediating effect on the three flow dimensions, and t-tests for English proficiency and gender. The analyses indicated that both choice and interactional pattern significantly contributed to students’ affective engagement in tasks, but that interactional pattern played a more important role. Results showed that provision of choice did produce a significant positive difference in affective engagement compared to no choice, but that there was no distinction between student-generated and teacher-assigned choice. The findings also showed that an interactional pattern of group work produced significantly better results, followed by individual work, and a negative trend for whole-class interaction. A MANOVA test showed that while choice had a significant effect on task control and task appeal, interactional pattern showed a significant effect for all three flow dimensions, including focused attention. Moreover, the findings revealed a significant interaction effect between choice and interactional pattern for students’ perceptions of task appeal. Lastly, it was concluded from t-test results that neither English proficiency, nor gender significantly related to affective engagement in tasks.