COLATE: The contagion of learner and teacher engagement

Both learner and teacher engagement are core determinants of the success of language learning. When engagement is high, so is wellbeing and, subsequently, learner success is much more likely. This project aims to fill several core gaps in the field about language learner and teacher engagement. The project focuses on the dynamic nature of language teacher engagement (TE), and learner engagement (LE) and seeks to explore to what extent there is synchronicity, and thus contagion, between the emotional, behavioural, and cognitive dimensions of engagement among learners and between learners and teachers. 

The project involves three main study phases which begin with a focus on the micro-level context investigating the dynamism of TE and LE during individual lessons and over a semester of study, comparing experiences in online and onsite classes and across the two cultural contexts. Data will be collected using an innovative combination of tools including biofeedback data, ESM data, observations, stimulated recall interviews, and surveys. The findings from the micro-level phase will be used to generate new, domain-specific scales to measure the dynamism and contagion of TE and LE in an international study expanding the study to a broader range of contexts, exploring also possible cultural variation.