Associations Among Perceived Teacher and Peer Emotions, Learners’ Own Emotions, and Engagement in Online English Learning

Abstract

Emotion is integral to foreign language classrooms. Although recent research has expanded beyond learners to consider teachers and peers, these sources of classroom emotions have often been examined separately. Consequently, the associations among students’ perceptions of teacher emotions, peer emotions, their own emotions, and learning engagement remain underexplored, particularly in online learning contexts. To address this gap, this study employed structural equation modeling (SEM) and psychological network analysis (PNA) using data from 487 Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The SEM results showed that students’ perceived teacher and peer emotions were directly associated with online English learning engagement and were also indirectly associated with engagement through learners’ own emotions. The PNA further showed that learning engagement occupied a central position in the estimated network and that perceived teacher and peer enjoyment had negative conditional associations with learner anxiety. Taken together, the findings indicate that students’ perceived teacher and peer emotions, their own emotions, and online English learning engagement are closely interconnected. These findings provide insights into emotional associations in synchronous online EFL learning and offer pedagogical implications for comparable university-level online language learning contexts.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Language Teaching Research, 2026 · DOI ↗