Impact of teachers' support strategies on students' engagement of online college English class experiences

Abstract

During the covid-19 pandemic, students’ online learning quality is imbued with teachers’ support strategies while students’ learning engagement is another great indicator underlies their learning experiences. Through a questionnaire survey of 500 freshmen who have had their college English class online in 2022 fall, an investigation using exploratory factor analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, stepwise regression analysis and parallel mediator model reveals the impact of teachers’ support strategies (the six dimensions of challenge, authentic context, curiosity, autonomy, recognition and feedback) on the learners’ online college English learning engagement (the four dimensions of cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, social engagement), thus particular concern is also given to the correlation with students’ online learning experiences. It was found that even under diversified and comprehensive guiding strategies from teachers, university students’ online college English learning engagement is at the medium level, among which the cognitive engagement should be devoted more. The experimental data also shows that teachers’ support strategies have significant influence on learners’ engagement, especially teachers’ feedback and challenge setting will stimulate students to involve more in their study. In addition, both teachers’ support strategies and students’ learning engagement involves significant reflection of learning experiences accordingly. Based on this learning concept, related proposals see different degrees of prominence reflected in online instructional design, teachers’ and students’ feedback literacy, and technology-enabled innovative teaching practice are put forward, in order to effectively play the role of teacher scaffolding, learning experiences enrichment and students’ engagement enhancement of online English learning.