Testing experimental-based models on the influence of teacher emotional support on students’ basic psychological needs, emotions, and emotional engagement

Abstract Informed by self-determination theory, this study tested experiment-based models incorporating teacher emotional support (TES) and students’ basic psychological needs (BPNs) satisfaction, frustration, emotions of anxiety and enjoyment, emotional disengagement, and emotional engagement as learning outcomes over three time points. An experimental group (n = 63) received a 10-week quasi-experimental intervention that targeted the three dimensions of TES: positive climate, teacher sensitivity, and regard for students’ perspectives. Questionnaires and classroom observation data was processed using ANOVA, ANCOVA, and PLS-SEM analyses. The findings revealed significant positive changes in students’ BPNs, emotions, and emotional engagement, peaking toward the end of the experiment. The PLS-SEM analysis indicated that the experimentally driven models showed acceptable goodness of fit to the data, explaining 91 and 94% of the variance in learners’ emotional engagement at T2 and T3, respectively. While TES did not account for a significant direct effect on the outcome variable for any of the phases, this effect was largely mediated by learners’ BPNs satisfaction and enjoyment. These findings provide empirical evidence of the advantages of TES approach for L2 learners.