AUTHOR=Zhao Yanlin , Yang Lianrui 

TITLE=Examining the relationship between perceived teacher support and students’ academic engagement in foreign language learning: Enjoyment and boredom as mediators

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.987554

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.987554

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Teacher support, as an important contextual factor, has been a hot topic in 
educational research. Previous studies indicated that it is closely related to students’ 
academic engagement, learning motivation, emotional experiences, etc. However, this 
important contextual factor has been largely overlooked in the foreign language 
learning context. Given the important role of teacher support in students’ academic 
performance, the present study intended to investigate the relationship between 
perceived teacher support, enjoyment, boredom, and academic engagement. Data 
were collected from 1094 English as a foreign language (EFL) high school students in 
China. The results showed that students had moderate levels of perceived teacher 
support, enjoyment, and academic engagement, and a low level of boredom. Further 
correlation analyses indicated medium to large correlations between perceived teacher 
support, enjoyment, boredom, and academic engagement. Additionally, enjoyment 
and boredom collectively mediated the relationship between perceived teacher 
support and academic engagement. Implications of the present study and directions 
for future research are presented at the end.