Teacher enthusiasm and students’ social-behavioral learning engagement: The mediating role of student enjoyment and boredom in Chinese EFL classes

Abstract

Teacher enthusiasm is attracting growing attention in educational and learner psychology research. There is evidence that teacher enthusiasm is contagious in class and positively affects student emotions. Their fundamental role in shaping student engagement has also been well documented. However, the links – between teacher enthusiasm and student emotions, and between student emotions and engagement – remain underexplored in instructed second language acquisition. The present study adopted a mixed-method approach to examine the complex relationships between perceived teacher enthusiasm, emotions (enjoyment and boredom), and social-behavioral learning engagement among 2,002 learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) from 11 universities in China. Quantitative analyses showed small to large correlations between perceived teacher enthusiasm, enjoyment, boredom, and social-behavioral learning engagement. In addition, student enjoyment and boredom were found to co-mediate the relationship between perceptions of teacher enthusiasm and student social-behavioral engagement in English classes. Qualitative interviews with nine students provided insights into the potential causes of the statistical patterns. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed, followed by directions for future research.

Researching and Practicing Positive Psychology in Second/Foreign Language Learning and Teaching: The Past, Current Status and Future Directions

“…Research studies on FLE have focused on its conceptualization, measurement, antecedents, and correlates in the language learning process (e.g., Li et al, 2018;Jin and Zhang, 2019). Reviewing the existing literature indicated that FLE can lead to better academic achievement (Jin and Zhang, 2018;Li et al, 2020), L2 motivation (MacIntyre, 2016), and social-behavioral learning engagement (Dewaele and Li, 2021).…”

“…But, it needs to be mentioned that in comparison with the domain of educational research, language learning is at its infancy, having just initiated to study L2 engagement in connection with learning different languages in different contexts and cultures (Hiver et al, 2020a). Within the extant literature, students' L2 engagement was found to be positively related to teacher care, rapport (Derakhshan et al, 2021a), nonverbal immediacy, and credibility behaviors (Derakhshan, 2021), emotions, grit (Khajavy, 2021), enjoyment (Dewaele and Li, 2021), willingness to communicate (Mystkowska-Wiertelak, 2021), and bilingual/biliteracy learning (Zhang et al, 2012).…”

Using Machine Learning Approaches to Explore Non-Cognitive Variables Influencing Reading Proficiency in English among Filipino Learners

“…Students in the poor reading proficiency group tended to report lower values, suggesting that they were more likely to perceive their reading teachers as having low enthusiasm in the classroom. Research suggests that teacher enthusiasm is indirectly related to student achievement in language classes, with teacher enthusiasm directly influencing students' learning engagement in the classroom [49].…”

Exploring the Relationship Between Chinese EFL Students' Grit, Well-Being, and Classroom Enjoyment

“…In this way, classroom enjoyment can be supposed as the preference practiced when students admire learning the subject matter (constructive review) and feel proficient in managing and finalizing the tasks they are confronted with (control). Accordingly, enjoyment is thought to be of the greatest prominence for the following feeling of fulfillment, which matches educational accomplishment (Ainley and Hidi, 2013;Piechurska-Kuciel, 2017;Dewaele and Li, 2021). Considering enjoyment as a multidimensional paradigm, it holds five mechanisms including the emotional, intellectual, motivational, communicative, and physical (Hagenauer and Hascher, 2014;Elahi Shirvan and Taherian, 2020), in which attention has been drawn mainly to the first three.…”