Student engagement in the multilingual classroom

The project

This FWF-funded ESPRIT project examines the engagement of learners in Middle School (MS) in the English class in Austria, with a special focus on learners with linguistically diverse backgrounds.

The project has three main aims:

To explore learners’ engagement in the English language classroom.
To examine learners’ engagement with school more broadly.
To understand learners’ engagement with their whole language repertoire within and beyond school.

By means of this project, we hope to gain a better understanding of MS students' individual learning needs and the dynamics of their engagement within and beyond school.

This study adopts a two-phase sequential mixed-method research design, in which the initial exploratory phase (Phase I) will be followed by a large-scale quantitative survey (Phase II). The two sequential stages will complement each other and lead to the refinement of a theoretical model of engagement by generating rich insights into the construct.

Currently, we are in Phase II of the project. We are piloting our research instruments for the quantitative phase of the study, and we aim to complete data collection by February 2025.

More information

Meet the Team

Principal Investigator

Giulia sulis

Dr. Giulia Sulis is the Principal Investigator of the project. She is currently employed as Senior Postdoc at the University of Graz. She graduated from the University of Groningen with a Master’s in Applied Linguistics and pursued her PhD in Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University. Before starting this project, she was employed in another FWF funded study focusing on language teacher wellbeing. Her research interests lie in the psychology of language learning and teaching; in particular, she is currently researching motivation, engagement, Willingness to Communicate (WTC), and language teacher wellbeing.

Mentor

Sarah Mercer

Prof. Sarah Mercer is the Head of the ELT Research and Methodology unit at the University of Graz. She is interested in all aspects of language learning psychology, in particular self-related constructs, motivation, affect, agency, attributions, mindsets and belief systems. In her research, she prefers to employ qualitatively-oriented approaches. Currently, she is engaged in considering aspects of language learner psychology through a complexity lens and exploring a diverse range of methodological approaches for this purpose.

Research Assistant

Christina Hölzl

Christina Hölzl has been studying to become a secondary teacher for English and history, social studies and political education in Graz since fall 2018. She successfully completed her Bachelor's degree in September 2022 and has since continued her studies in the Master's program, which is expected to be completed this summer. Since September 2023, she has been working as a research assistant for the project “A multi-level model of middle school student engagement” as well as a student assistant at the Department of English Fachdidaktik in Graz. Additionally, she is writing her Master's thesis at the Department of English Fachdidaktik in Graz.

Research Assistant

Melanie Göttfried

Melanie Göttfried has been studying to become a secondary teacher for English and history, social studies and political education in Graz since fall 2018. She successfully completed her bachelor’s degree in August 2022 and then spent a semester abroad in the US. She has since continued her studies in the Master's program, which is expected to be completed this summer. Since September 2023, she has been working as a research assistant for the project “A multi-level model of middle school student engagement” as well as a student assistant at the Department of History Fachdidaktik in Graz. She is currently writing her Master’s thesis in Ancient History.

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Former Research Assistant

Julia Begander

Julia Begander is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in the General Secondary Level Teacher Training at University of Graz. She graduated from the Bachelor’s Programme with distinction and is passionate about her future career as an English and German teacher. Her particular interest lies in the communicative aspects of language learning and teaching.