Emotions in teacher engaging messages: Their interplay with student outcomes

This study investigates how teachers’ emotional prosody influences student outcomes. Audio-recorded messages (N = 353) from 55 secondary school teachers were analysed using speech emotion recognition software. A latent profile analysis identified two prosody profiles: low and high emotional expression. Low emotional expression in gain-framed messages predicted higher student motivation, whereas high emotional expression in loss-framed messages predicted better academic performance. These findings suggest that the impact of emotional prosody depends on the message frame, offering new insights into how teachers’ messages can shape students’ motivation and achievement. • The study explores emotions expressed within teacher engaging messages in naturalistic classroom settings. • Using speech emotion recognition, we analysed 353 audio-recorded messages. • Findings revealed two consistent profiles of emotional prosody across message types. • Results highlight the importance of emotional tone in teacher communication for student motivation and performance. • The study supports future research using speech-based methods to examine teacher emotions.