Iranian EFL Students’ L۲ Engagement: The Impact of Teacher Support and Teacher-student Rapport

Given that L۲ engagement serves a vital role in students’ academic success, studying the predictors of this construct seems critical. Notwithstanding, factors influencing one’s engagement in an L۲ context have remained unclear. To respond to this gap, the present research sought to unravel the effects of teacher support and teacher-student rapport on Iranian EFL students’ L۲ engagement. To this aim, ۲۱۶ Iranian students majoring in Applied Linguistics, Linguistics, English Translation, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, or English Literature were invited to cooperate in this investigation. To obtain the required data, three pre-designed scales were virtually distributed among the respondents. Then, through correlation tests, the association between teacher support, teacher-student rapport, and student L۲ engagement was measured. Following that, the impact of teacher support and teacher-student rapport on Iranian students’ L۲ engagement was assessed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The correlational analysis uncovered a strong, favorable association between constructs. The SEM analysis also indicated that teacher support and teacher-student rapport can strongly influence Iranian students’ engagement in EFL classes. The implications of the results are further discussed.                  

Keywords:

L۲ engagement , teacher support , teacher-student rapport , Iranian students , EFL classes , L۲ engagement , teacher support , teacher-student rapport , Iranian students , EFL classes