Associations between Autonomy-Supportive Teaching, the Use of Non-Academic ICTs, and Student Motivation in English Language Learning

During puberty, children experience an increased need for autonomy in all areas of their lives, including school. However, teachers use different levels of autonomy-supportive teaching strategies, which might have detrimental effects on students’ perceived competence and—building on self-determination theory—motivation to learn. In this preregistered study, we investigated whether students could buffer the negative impact of little perceived autonomy support in the English-language classroom on their perceived competence and, consequently, two motivational outcomes (grade aspirations, intrinsic motivation) by using non-academic English-language ICTs in their free time. We calculated several (moderated) mediation models with a Bayesian estimator, using data from N = 1288 Austrian secondary school students who answered three online questionnaires between May 2022 and April 2023. The results showed that perceived competence predicts both types of motivation and is influenced by students’ use of non-academic English-language ICTs. However, the effects of autonomy-supportive teaching strategies depend on which variables are included in the models. Our study therefore highlights the importance of examining several aspects of autonomy-supportive teaching and including variables from outside the school to represent the complex environment in which students’ motivation is shaped.