Modeling the interaction between teacher credibility, teacher confirmation, and English major students’ academic engagement: A sequential mixed-methods approach

Adopting a sequential mixed-methods approach, the current inquiry examined English major students’ perceptions of the role of teacher confirmation and teacher credibility in enhancing their academic engagement in the Chinese context. In doing so, through WeChat messenger, three scales were provided to 1168 English major students chosen from different English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. For the sake of triangulation, 40 participants were invited to take part in interview sessions as well. The inspection of the correlations between the constructs indicated a strong association between student academic engagement and teacher confirmation as well as a close connection between student academic engagement and teacher credibility. This showed that the academic engagement of Chinese EFL students is tied to these teacher interpersonal behaviors. The contribution of teacher confirmation and credibility to Chinese EFL students’ academic engagement was also examined using path analysis, which demonstrated that Chinese EFL students’ academic engagement was predicted by teacher credibility and confirmation. Additionally, the interview outcomes proved the integral role of these two communication behaviors in increasing Chinese students’ engagement. Findings may have some noteworthy implications for teacher educators and language instructors.