Comparing high school students' online self-regulation and engagement in English language learning

Online self-regulation and engagement are key factors that facilitate student language learning in the physical absence of teachers. Few investigations have explored the potential impact of de-mographic variables such as urbanicity or ethnicity on online self-regulated learning. Such studies, however, can play a significant role in ensuring equity in education. We compared online self-regulation and engagement among three groups of secondary students from a metropolitan city and a rural area with mixed ethnicities. The ANOVA results indicated that there were sig-nificant differences between rural and urban groups, as well as between rural ethnic and urban non-ethnic groups. Partial least squares path analyses revealed commonalities and differences in the predictive relations. The rural-urban divide appears to be an important determinant of stu-dents' online self-regulated learning. Cross-ethnic differences were also found regarding the re-lations between online self-regulation and engagement. This study deepens our understanding of secondary English learners from different socio-cultural-and economic backgrounds who are receiving online instruction. It calls for more efforts to close the digital divide between rural and urban education.