Heliyon (Aug 2024)
Effects of perceived teacher support on online language learners’ engagement
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the effects of perceived teacher support on online language learners’ engagement. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted to explore the issue. A total of 1429 Chinese first-year non-English major students from different disciplines participated in the survey, and three of them were selected as semi-structured interviewees. The collected survey data were processed through multiple analyses with the help of SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 24.0, while qualitative data subsequently gathered from interviews served as supplementary evidence for examining the quantitative results. The findings indicated that online language learners were generally engaged at an intermediate level, and overall perceived teacher support was relatively close to the upper level. Furthermore, online language learners’ engagement was positively correlated with perceived teacher support. Specifically, perceived intellectual support dominated in predicting overall engagement, cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, and social engagement, whereas perceived emotional support had the strongest influence on language learners’ behavioral engagement in the online context. The implications of these findings for future studies and educational practices were discussed.
