Chinese Students’ L2 Classroom Engagement in College: Perceived Teacher Support, Value Beliefs and Self-monitoring

Based on an integrated framework of the Self-Determination Theory and the Expectancy-Value Theory, this study investigated the link between students’ perceived teacher support and their L2 classroom engagement via two mediators: students’ value beliefs of English learning and metacognitive self-monitoring with a sample of 377 college students from a Chinese university. With gender, age and onset age of English learning under control, path analyses showed that perceived teacher support directly predicted L2 classroom engagement, and the link between them was also positively mediated by either students’ value beliefs or self-monitoring. Moreover, this study also revealed that the indirect effect of perceived teacher support on L2 classroom engagement was significant through the serial mediation of students’ value beliefs and then self-monitoring. These findings suggest that in the context of L2 learning, higher level of perceived teacher support will promote college students’ L2 classroom engagement by stimulating students’ value beliefs of L2 learning and strengthening their metacognitive self-monitoring, which provides practical implications to language teaching activities in the classroom setting.