Autonomy Support, Psychological Needs Satisfaction, Academic Engagement, and Achievement in English Learning

Generating a Mediation Model

Abstract

Academic engagement is a construct of educational psychology related to multiple constructs and outcomes: school drop-out, satisfaction with school, disruptive behavior, motivational climate, teacher-student relationships, academic progress, and achievement. The current study surveyed 316 first-year Japanese undergraduate students to predict academic engagement and achievement in English. After considering a correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis hierarchically, two models were created: Simultaneous Effects (Model 1) and Direct Mediation (Model 2). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed on these two models to examine their goodness-of-fit and path coefficients. The Direct Mediation Model, Model 2, was the more suitable of the two. It revealed that teacher autonomy support satisfies psychological needs, and these predict academic engagement, which improves achievement in English learning. Therefore, the results suggest the importance of autonomy-supportive instruction for satisfying basic psychological needs in English education.