How teacher support promotes student engagement in AI-supported English learning?: Mediating pathways through personal best goals and academic buoyancy

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how university students learn English, but we still know relatively little about how teacher support is associated with student engagement in AI-supported learning. Drawing on Achievement Goal Theory, this study examined whether personal best goals and academic buoyancy mediated the association between teacher support and engagement. The participants were 774 undergraduate students in China with experience using AI-assisted tools for English learning. We tested the proposed relationships and indirect effects using structural equation modelling and bias-corrected bootstrapping. Teacher support was positively associated with personal best goals, academic buoyancy, and engagement. In turn, both personal best goals and academic buoyancy were positively associated with engagement and significantly mediated its relationship with teacher support. Together, these findings identify two complementary pathways linking teacher support to engagement: self-referenced striving for improvement and adaptive responses to everyday academic setbacks. They also support an Achievement Goal Theory-informed account of engagement within AI-supported English learning.