This study investigated the relationships among student and school variables affecting
English academic achievement in Korean elementary schools. In doing so, the study used
KELS 2013(Korea Education Longitudinal Study 2013) data and employed multi-level
structural equation modelling. Student-level variables considered in this study include
parents’ socio-economic status(SES) and their support, English academic self-efficacy, intrinsic
motivation, learning flow, test stress. School-level variables include teacher’s efficacy, teaching
styles, student’s attitude in class, and school SES. The results of this study showed that, at
the student level, academic self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation had a negative direct effect
and a positive indirect effect on English achievement scores; i.e., students who had high
academic self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation tend to have low English achievement scores.
when learning flow mediated such a relationship, however, the direction was reversed. At
the school level, student’s class attitude fully mediated relationship between teacher’s
teaching efficacy and interactional teaching style and English academic achievement; i.e.,
schools with teachers who had higher teaching efficacy and gave more focus on interactional
instruction in class tend to have favorable class attitudes in school, which in turn positively
predicted English academic achievement. Finally at the cross effect between school and
student level, teacher’s teaching efficacy and teaching styles had positive effects on English
academic achievement via learning flow. Based on the findings, the study suggests the
improvement of student’s learning flow and teachers pedagogical skills related to teaching
efficacy should be made for higher English achievement in elementary schools.