Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Educ.

Sec. Higher Education

Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1642267

This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Pedagogy Through InnovationView all articles

Effects of Community of Inquiry on EFL Students' Vocabulary Learning Motivation in a Blended Learning Environment

Provisionally accepted
  • Yibin University, Yibin, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

In China, the conventional structure of classrooms frequently demotivates students' vocabulary learning. To solve the dilemma, blended learning provides a more motivated, learner-centered, and engaged classroom. Taking the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework and Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as the theoretical basis, this study examines the structural relationships between the three dimensions of CoI-Teaching Presence, Social Presence, and Cognitive Presence-and four types of Vocabulary Learning Motivation (VLM): Intrinsic Motivation, Identified Regulation, Introjected Regulation, and External Regulation among Chinese university students. A quantitative survey method was applied, and 12 hypotheses were tested with a sample of 400 undergraduates who have participated in a blended English course at a public university in Changsha, China. Utilizing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique, results showed notable positive predictive effects of the three dimensions of CoI on the four aspects of VLM. Exceptionally, Teaching Presence did not predict significantly with Identified and Introjected Regulation. These findings highlight the potential of CoI-based blended learning to improve vocabulary acquisition by promoting diverse motivating factors. Consequently, this study enhances the theoretical application of the CoI and SDT in the EFL context. It also provides practical implications for improving blended learning environments to enhance student motivation and achievement in vocabulary learning.

Keywords: Community of inquiry framework, blended learning, Vocabulary Learning Motivation, Effects, SEM

Received: 06 Jun 2025; Accepted: 05 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Chuane. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Qiu Chuane, Yibin University, Yibin, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.