Investigating the interrelationship among academic emotions, classroom engagement, and self-efficacy in the context of EFL learning in smart classrooms in China

ObjectiveThis study aims to fill in the gap by exploring the interrelationship among academic emotions, classroom engagement and self-efficacy in EFL learning among Chinese non-English majors in smart classrooms.MethodsA total of 409 non-English majors in their first year from a Chinese university completed the revised version of the academic emotions scale, classroom engagement scale and self-efficacy scale and their interrelationship has been analysed by Structural Equation Modelling.ResultsPositive emotion significantly enhances classroom engagement, while negative emotion does not. Classroom engagement has a significant effect on promoting self-efficacy, which is influenced by both positive and negative emotions, with positive emotions having a greater impact. Specifically, classroom engagement mediates the relationship between positive emotion and self-efficacy, whereas it does not mediate between negative emotion and self-efficacy.ConclusionSmart classrooms can stimulate students' positive academic emotions, increase their engagement in learning so as to enhance their self-efficacy. What is already known about this topic: Academic emotion, engagement and self-efficacy have significant influence on learning.Self-efficacy plays a mediating role between students' engagement and academic emotion.Academic emotion is situational and influenced by such factors as classroom atmosphere.What this topic adds: The relationship among academic emotion, engagement, and self-efficacy in smart classrooms has been explored.It has investigated the mediating role of classroom engagement between positive emotion and self-efficacy.This study focuses on the academic emotions, engagement, and self-efficacy of Chinese English learners, offering a unique perspective in different cultural contexts.