Academic Resilience in Chinese EFL Classrooms: Relationship with Teacher Support Activities

Abstract

Objectives: The present study aimed to test the hypothesized relationship between the support provided by teachers in Chinese EFL classrooms and the academic resilience of the students. Method: The sample included 208 (131 females and 77 males) high school students. The measures used for the present study were the Academic Resilience Scale-30(ARS-30) and the Teacher as Social Context Questionnaire(TASCQ). After the external validity of the scales was testified, these scales were used to examine the influence of teacher supportive activities on academic resilience in EFL classrooms in China. Results: In the context of Chinese EFL classrooms, student-perceived teacher support tends to be a unidimensional factor, without significant variation found among the hypothesized subdimensions of structure, autonomy, and involvement support. (2) Teachers’ supportive activities perceived by the only-child group indicated a significant difference from the children with siblings group (t = 237, p < .05). Additionally, a significant effect of parental educational background on perceived teacher support was also identified (F=11.34, p <.001). Students whose mother had a higher level of education achieved higher scores in both academic resilience and teacher support (F=3.36, p<0.05, F=12.46, p < .001). (3) Teacher support had a positive effect on academic resilience (β = 0.451, p < .001), and it also had significantly positive effect on three dimensions of academic resilience(β = 0.416, 0.498, 0.342, p < .01)