BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicCulture and Emotion in Educational Dynamics - Volume VView all 16 articles
Fostering Engagement in EFL Listening: How Teacher Autonomy Support Mediates the Impact of Academic Emotions
Provisionally accepted
- 1Dali University, Dali, China
- 2Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
- 3Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China
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This study investigates how academic emotions and autonomy support shape engagement in English as a foreign language (EFL) listening, a skill that receives less research attention than reading, writing, or speaking. Two hundred and nineteen Chinese undergraduates completed scales on academic emotions, perceived autonomy support, and their behavioral and emotional engagement in listening activities. We found that the impact of academic emotions on listening learning engagement presented a complex, multi-path system. The results showed that enjoyment most directly and powerfully enhanced learning engagement, while hopelessness and anger directly diminished affective and behavioral engagement, respectively. Meanwhile, although pride and anxiety did not have a direct effect, they could indirectly be transformed into positive drivers by stimulating students' perception of teacher autonomy support; conversely, boredom indirectly inhibited engagement by undermining such support. Our findings suggest that comprehension difficulties can sharpen students' emotional responses, and these feelings, in turn, influence their engagement in listening tasks. This study indicates that an autonomy-supportive learning environment can foster students' positive emotional experiences and promote their engagement in EFL listening.
Keywords: academic emotions, Anxiety, English listening learning, Learning autonomy, Learningengagement
Received: 14 Nov 2025; Accepted: 04 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zeng, Peng, Huang and Wu. 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: Chenggang Wu
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