Unravelling students’ perceived EFL teacher support

Although studies on teacher support have come of age, research on English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher support remains in its infancy. The lack of in-depth exploration of the inner structure of EFL teacher support limits our understanding of this important aspect of language teaching. Moreover, there are inconsistent findings about whether students of different genders and ages differ in their perceived teacher support. To fill these gaps, this study investigated 1,401 Chinese high school EFL students using the Students’ Perceived EFL Teacher Support Scale (SPEFLTSS). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that EFL teacher support is a tri-factorial structure involving academic, instrumental, and emotional support. An examination of differences in EFL teacher support in terms of gender and age showed that male students perceived significantly higher emotional support than female students did, and senior high school students reported significantly higher general and instrumental support than their junior counterparts. We offer some implications for sustaining and promoting EFL teacher support and propose future directions for EFL teacher support research.