How Do Cognitive Loads Vary and What Factors Influence Them Among Ethnic Minority Junior High School Students During English Listening-Speaking Classes?

How Do Cognitive Loads Vary and What Factors Influence Them Among Ethnic Minority Junior High School Students During English Listening-Speaking Classes? | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article How Do Cognitive Loads Vary and What Factors Influence Them Among Ethnic Minority Junior High School Students During English Listening-Speaking Classes? jing Chen, Xian Ma, Xingyu Gao, Xue Lin This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6881379/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Previous studies focused on the cognitive load of English learners in monolingual or bilingual context, few researches targeted ethnic minority learners who learned English as a third language. This study, with Hani (Ethnic Minority) junior high school students as participants, investigates the distribution and influencing factors of students’ cognitive load in English listening-speaking classes. Through questionnaires and interview analysis, the results revealed that the total cognitive load of Hani students is at an upper-middle level, with an upper-middle level of intrinsic cognitive load and germane cognitive load and a lower-middle level of extraneous cognitive load. Students at different grade show different level of each of the three sub-types of cognitive loads. Many factors like interest, learning strategy, teaching method, prior knowledge, confidence, teaching tools, and time pressure result in their different cognitive load. Social science/Education Social science/Language and linguistics Social science/Psychology cognitive load Hani students English listening and speaking Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6881379","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":597151409,"identity":"49d4a18d-2aa3-4854-b519-f02752275155","order_by":0,"name":"jing Chen","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAwklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCQYG5j8/bCAcHmK1MPD2pJGqhYftMAla+Gc3H3sgwXPe3uBGAuODt20M8uYELblzLN3AwOJ24oYbCcyGc9sYDHc2ENBiIJFjJpHAczvB7EYCmzRvG0OCwQGCWvK/SRxgO2cP1ML+m0gtOWySDWwHGLcBbWEmSovEjTQzacae5MT9Zx42S845J2G4gZAW/hnJz6QZftjZS7YnH/zwpsxGnqAtSICxgQESTaNgFIyCUTAKKAYAAkA7wFTSjmMAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"College of Teacher Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"jing","middleName":"","lastName":"Chen","suffix":""},{"id":597151411,"identity":"bb151bed-c816-4465-a526-574c5b987122","order_by":1,"name":"Xian Ma","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"QuJing No.1 Middle School, Yunnan, China","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xian","middleName":"","lastName":"Ma","suffix":""},{"id":597151412,"identity":"12a95b78-67ec-4d3c-aee0-9039712658f3","order_by":2,"name":"Xingyu Gao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"College of Teacher Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xingyu","middleName":"","lastName":"Gao","suffix":""},{"id":597151414,"identity":"8266aa0a-f384-4267-b898-bf1fa5d08574","order_by":3,"name":"Xue Lin","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"College of Teacher Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xue","middleName":"","lastName":"Lin","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-06-12 14:38:29","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6881379/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6881379/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":106890816,"identity":"3d31038f-092e-4059-b1ef-88a45be5a9ee","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-14 13:26:56","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":655792,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"HowDoCognitiveLoadsVaryandWhatFactors.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6881379/v1_covered_70b27434-f70e-4df6-98fe-37924dc0eae9.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"How Do Cognitive Loads Vary and What Factors Influence Them Among Ethnic Minority Junior High School Students During English Listening-Speaking Classes?","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"cognitive load, Hani students, English, listening and speaking","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6881379/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6881379/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Previous studies focused on the cognitive load of English learners in monolingual or bilingual context, few researches targeted ethnic minority learners who learned English as a third language. 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