The mediating role of perceived teacher emotional support in EFL students’ social-emotional competence and psychological well-being: a structural equation modelling (SEM) study

Abstract

ABSTRACT A bulk of investigations has been done on the impact of teachers’ affective support on English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ academic performance. However, the role of perceived teacher affective support in shaping learner-related psycho-emotional constructs has rarely been explored in EFL settings. To bridge this gap, this study used a quantitative design to examine if teacher affective support influences/predicts students’ social-emotional competence and psychological well-being or not. To this end, 370 Chinese EFL students participated in the survey. The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis and regression revealed that perceived teacher affective support could respectively predict about 60% and 65% of changes in the participants’ SEC and PWB. The study also provided a number of implications for EFL teachers and educators regarding the emotional basis of second/foreign language (L2) education and suggested some future research directions.