Exploring student motivation and engagement in EMI: a latent profile analysis

Abstract

While English medium instruction (EMI) programs proliferate around the globe, research on students’ motivation and engagement (ME) in EMI remains underrepresented. Informed by a multidimensional conceptualization of ME as interconnected, this study employed an adapted Motivation and Engagement Scale to examine university students’ ME in EMI classes in the Chinese higher education context. The study involved 696 students from 34 Chinese universities. Results show that students were diversely motivated and engaged in EMI classes. Individual variations in student EMI ME across gender, region, grade, major, colleges’ prestige, and colleges’ profession were also identified. A latent profile analysis reveals four distinct profiles of EMI learners: the ‘Demotivated and Moderately Engaged’, the ‘Moderately Motivated and Engaged’, the ‘Contradictorily Motivated and Engaged’, and the ‘Motivated and Engaged’. The findings yield new light on the characteristics of Chinese university students’ ME in EMI curricular contexts.

Keywords:

• EMI
• individual differences
• latent profile analysis
• student motivation and engagement

Acknowledgement

This research is funded by General Research Fund (GRF) (Project Number: 18607723), Research Grant Council, Hong Kong, China.

Authors’ contributions  

Lianjiang Jiang: Conceptualization, data curation, writing-original draft, review & editing  

Nan Zhou: Conceptualization, data curation and analysis, writing, review & editing  

Michelle Mingyue Gu: Conceptualization, writing review & editing  

Xiaohui Li: Data curation, review & editing  

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.