E-learning anxiety and satisfaction with online EFL courses in times of COVID-19: A moderated mediation model of positive coping and gender

Abstract

This study proposed and statistically examined a research model to understand university learners’ satisfaction with online English as a foreign language (EFL) courses during the pandemic. Variables including e-learning anxiety, positive coping, and gender were under investigation. These variables did not receive much attention in the previous literature, and yet they are considered essential to understanding satisfaction with online EFL courses. A total of 439 undergraduate EFL learners from a university in Taiwan participated in the present study. The technique of structural equation modeling was adopted to test the hypotheses in the moderated mediation model. This study discovered: (1) e-learning anxiety had a negative impact on EFL learners’ satisfaction with online EFL courses; (2) positive coping was able to reduce the negative impact of e-learning anxiety on satisfaction with online EFL courses; (3) males used more positive coping strategies than females, and they had better satisfaction scores as well. The results can enrich the current applied linguistics literature by providing an insight into the dynamics of these variables.