Teacher Support and L2 Willingness to Communicate in CALL Among Chinese EFL Learners: A Chain Mediation Model of Self-Efficacy and Learning Engagement

While teacher support, academic self-efficacy, and learning engagement are recognized as influencing L2 willingness to communicate (WTC) in computer-assisted language learning (CALL), the specific mechanisms linking teacher support to WTC via these mediators remain unclear. Drawing on a sample of undergraduates from a Chinese EFL context, this study investigated the chain mediating roles of academic self-efficacy and learning engagement, integrating control-value theory (CVT) and the WTC pyramid model. Data were collected from 709 undergraduates at three universities in Shandong Province, China, and analyzed using Mplus 8.3 and SPSS 24.0. Results revealed that teacher support had a moderate direct effect on WTC (β = .221, p < .001). Crucially, academic self-efficacy and learning engagement sequentially mediated this relationship. These findings, grounded in a Chinese cultural-educational setting, underscore the importance of teacher support in CALL environments and elucidate a cognitive-motivational pathway through which it enhances communicative willingness. Implications suggest educators should integrate technical and affective scaffolding (multimodal scaffolding) to leverage control-value synergies, while CALL designers should prioritize features that maintain appraisal salience to sustain engagement in autonomous learning contexts.