Skip to content
PaperFren

Motivation

Does teacher support boost high-school English engagement?

Zhang W, Hu J · Frontiers in psychology · 2025

Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC

Among 314 Chinese senior high school students, perceived English-teacher support predicted engagement both directly and through motivation, with a larger path via intrinsic than extrinsic motivation.

Study at a glance

Design
Cross-sectional — Stratified school survey with structural equation modeling of self-report scales; Harman CMB check and bootstrap mediation.
N
N=314 · 314 valid questionnaires (~90% of 349 planned); 152 male (48.3%) and 162 female (51.7%).
Population
Chinese senior high school students in four schools (urban and county) in a southeastern province.
Outcome
Perceived English-teacher support, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, and student engagement (SEM paths).

Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.

Key findings

Means were moderate-to-high (teacher support M=3.79; engagement M=3.55). Direct β from support to engagement = 0.173 (30.6% of total). Indirect via intrinsic motivation = 0.225 (39.8%); via extrinsic = 0.099 (17.5%). Model fit was acceptable (χ²/df=1.83, RMSEA=0.05).

Methodology

Stratified random sampling of four schools, paper Likert surveys of teacher support, motivation, and engagement, then confirmatory factor analysis and SEM with 5,000 bootstrap draws for mediation.

Limitations

Cross-sectional self-reports cannot prove causality; common-method bias was only partly ruled out; findings are English class in one Chinese province, not all subjects or countries.

How this study connects

Role on claims

Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.

Not yet placed on a claim. This paper has study layers, but no concept page yet cites it as support, challenge, or qualifier.

Related papers in this topic

Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.