A Study On The Impact Of English Teachers’ Autonomy Support On College Students’ English Study Engagement

More and more studies both at home and abroad have found that students’school performance and achievement are greatly affected by their engagement. The success of English learning also relies on meaningful and high level of study engagement. Self-determination theory assumes that in the process of interaction between human beings and the environment, if the three basic psychological needs (needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness) of human beings are satisfied, people will develop themselves in a positive and healthy way. A previous study has reported that in English learning, there is a positive correlation between students basic psychological needs satisfaction and English study engagement. In the process of English learning, students’ satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs relies on the support from surrounding members such as teachers, classmates, friends or family members etc.. Teachers’ support can play an important part in facilitating students’ development. In this research, the researcher explored 1) What are the characteristics of teachers’ autonomy support, college students’ English study engagement and basic psychological needs satisfaction respectively. 2) whether students perceived English teachers’ autonomy support can predict students’ English study engagement.3) Whether basic psychological needs satisfaction can mediate between teachers’ autonomy support and students’ study engagement. It is hypothesized that students’ English study engagement is positively correlated with English teachers’ autonomy support. And the three basic psychological needs mediate between English teachers’ autonomy support and students’ English study engagement.A questionnaire survey was conducted among 251 non-English major students in Guangxi University. SPSS 19.0 and Amos 17.0 were used for data processing and analysis. The findings are as follows:1. Students perceived English teachers’ autonomy support and basic psychological needs satisfaction were above the medium level. Students’ English study engagement was in a relatively low level. Males perceived more English teachers’ autonomy support than females, but females’ English study engagement was higher than that of males. Sophomores perceived more English teachers’ autonomy support than Freshmen. But both Freshmen’s basic psychological needs satisfaction and English study engagement were higher than that of sophomores.2. English teachers’ autonomy support was significantly correlated with students’ English study engagement. In the three sub-scales of English teachers’ autonomy support, only competence support could predict students’ English study engagement.3. Basic psychological needs satisfaction played as a full mediator between English teachers’ competence support and students’ English study engagement.