Divergent Trajectories of Teacher Enthusiasm Perceptions: A Longitudinal Study of Second Language Learners

Second language classroom is a dynamic space where teachers and students interact regularly. Within this space, students' observation of teachers' enthusiastic teaching behaviours plays a crucial role in shaping their behaviours and learning experiences. What remains missing from the existing research literature is how student‐perceived teacher enthusiasm changes over time and how such changes unfold for different groups of students in the language classroom. This study contributes to this agenda by tracking 317 Vietnamese EFL learners' perceptions of teacher enthusiasm over a semester and analysing patterns of change in these perceptions by means of growth mixture modelling. Results reveal three profiles of perceived teacher enthusiasm, each characterized by a unique developmental trajectory: a declining enthusiasm profile (11.04%), a strengthening enthusiasm profile (56.15%), and a fading enthusiasm profile (32.8%). Students in the strengthening enthusiasm profile reported the highest level of emotional engagement whereas those in the declining enthusiasm profile exhibited the lowest level of emotional engagement. The findings suggest the importance of an enthusiastic teaching style, verify the dynamic and malleable nature of teacher enthusiasm, and offer valuable implications for teacher education and teacher professional learning.