A study on the promoting effects of emotion-supportive teaching interventions on student learning engagement IN secondary chinese language classrooms

Abstract Background Learning engagement serves as a pivotal factor in predicting academic achievement and learning quality, proving particularly crucial in language classrooms emphasising interactive participation. Nevertheless, passive learning and low engagement remain prevalent challenges within traditional secondary Chinese language classrooms. Few studies, however, have systematically examined how structured emotionally supportive teaching interventions grounded in self-determination theory influence multidimensional learning engagement within specific subject contexts. This study aims to investigate the promotional effects of a targeted Emotionally Supportive Teaching (EST) programme on students' behavioural, affective, and cognitive engagement within secondary Chinese language classrooms. Methods Participants in the experiment were drawn from two comparable state secondary schools, comprising 240 Year 8 pupils and six Chinese language teachers. The experimental group (120 pupils and three teachers) received 12 weeks of emotion-supportive teaching training and classroom implementation. Key training components included recognising and responding to pupils' emotional cues, employing teaching language that fosters autonomy, and cultivating collaborative and emotionally safe classroom discussion environments. The control group (120 students, 3 teachers) maintained conventional teaching practices. Student learning engagement was measured using the Classroom Engagement Scale, comprising three sub-dimensions: behavioural engagement, affective engagement, and cognitive engagement. Data were collected pre- and post-intervention. A 2 × 2 mixed-design analysis of variance examined group × time interaction effects across engagement dimensions. Results Experimental findings indicate that emotional support observation scores in the experimental group's classroom significantly increased in the post-test (p.001). The experimental group demonstrated significant improvements across all participation dimensions from pre-test to post-test (all p.001), whereas the control group showed no significant changes. The largest effect size was observed for affective participation (ΔM = 1.06), followed by cognitive participation (ΔM = 0.88) and behavioural participation (ΔM = 0.87). Discussion Research indicates that structured, emotionally supportive teaching interventions significantly enhance behavioural, affective, and cognitive engagement among secondary school Chinese language learners. The most pronounced effect was observed in affective engagement, suggesting that students' emotional connection to the learning environment may be particularly responsive to teachers' emotional support. Future research may explore potential moderating factors such as class size or students' initial motivation levels, whilst analysing which specific components of the intervention prove most critical for different engagement outcomes across diverse cultural and educational contexts.