Conceptualizing and enhancing student engagement through technology: Perspectives from foreign language teachers in Estonia

Student engagement is broadly defined by scholars as a multidimensional concept, making it challenging to measure and operationalize in teaching and learning contexts. This study focuses on foreign language (FL) teachers’ experiences and conceptualization of student engagement, as well as how they integrate technology based on their understanding of engagement. An interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) of 10 in-depth interviews reveals that teachers clearly distinguish between disengagement and passive engagement, as well as between task, classroom and academic engagement. Estonian FL teachers primarily perceive task engagement, analysed through the framework of cognitive engagement, as constructive and interactive. At the same time, they connect task engagement to academic engagement by recognizing the importance of the socio-affective dimension, along with other key factors such as self-regulation, motivation, volition and meaningful learning. Academic engagement is perceived as crucial by FL teachers, but their use of technology in this context is less instrumental, leaving room for further discussion. Technology is mainly used to support active and constructive modes of cognitive engagement, and is often seen as a tool to capture the attention of students with low self-regulation, who are at risk of disengagement.