The spread of COVID-19 has changed the traditional education pattern, and prolonged home isolation and online learning have brought unprecedented challenges to second language teaching and learning. A sample of 1036 Chinese students from four representative middle schools participated in the research. The results indicated four motivations: intrinsic interest, learning situation, personal development, and immediate achievement. There were significant gender differences in English learning motivation. Moreover, intrinsic interest and personal development motivation had a significantly positive impact on English learning achievement, while learning situation had no significant impact, and immediate achievement motivation had a significantly negative impact. The findings highlight the cultivation of students’ learning autonomy and school-family interaction to promote the sustainable development of middle school students’ second language learning.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be realized without equal education. Based on a multiple linear regression model, this study examined the impact of family cultural capital on the academic achievement of high school students, and the variances in the impact of cultural capital on students from different regions and genders. Participants, including 778 students, from two representative regions were selected for the study (393 girls and 385 boys). The results showed that cultural capital promoted high school students’ academic success in different ways. Institutionalized cultural capital and embodied cultural capital had a significant impact on students’ academic achievements, while objectified cultural capital had no significant impact. This study suggested that cultural capital had an intergenerational effect. The influence of cultural capital on students’ achievement in regions and genders was significantly different. The above findings are helpful to further understand the mechanism of the impact of cultural capital on academic achievement and are of great significance to the sustainable improvement of students’ academic growth and educational equity.