The Relationship between Perceived Teacher Emotional Support, Online Academic Burnout, Academic Self-Efficacy, and Online English Academic Engagement of Chinese EFL Learners

This study explores the impact of college students’ perceived teacher emotional support on English academic engagement in technology-enhanced online learning contexts. It examined whether 450 Chinese students’ perceptions of teacher emotional support were related to students’ English academic engagement and mediated by students’ online academic burnout and academic self-efficacy. All of the sample students were recruited to complete an online questionnaire, and some students and teachers were invited to do a semi-structured interview. SPSS24 and PROCESS3.5 macro were utilized to undertake the descriptive, correlational, and mediation analyses. The findings showed that teachers’ perceived emotional support and student academic efficacy positively affect students’ online English academic engagement. In contrast, online academic burnout negatively affects students’ online English academic engagement. Student academic efficacy partially mediated the effects of perceived teacher emotional support and student academic engagement in online learning contexts. The interviews confirmed the findings, and the influences and roles of teachers’ emotional support were described in terms of teacher and student dimensions in an interview. Directions and further implications for researchers, teachers, and educators are presented at the end of the study.