Technology Anxiety and Class Size as Boundary of Instructional Effects in L2 Pronunciation: A Moderated Mediation Model

Although pronunciation instruction has been shown to improve L2 learners’ pronunciation performance, the indirect and moderating effects of learner differences, class size, and technology anxiety on this relationship remain underexplored. Previous studies have primarily focused on direct instructional effects, while anxiety has been an underexplored mediator, and the moderating roles of technology anxiety and class size have received limited attention. Therefore, this study investigates whether learner anxiety mediates the relationship between pronunciation instruction and learner performance, and technology anxiety and class size moderate the relationships among instruction, anxiety, and performance. A moderated mediation model was tested by employing structural equation modeling with data from 349 English learners at a public university. The results show that learner anxiety does not mediate the relationship between pronunciation instruction and pronunciation performance. Technology anxiety does not significantly moderate any relationship in the model. Class size significantly moderates only the relationship between learner anxiety and pronunciation performance. This study contributes to the literature by showing how psychological and contextual factors shape pronunciation performance. It also offers pedagogical implications for optimizing environments for pronunciation learning.