Adapting the Social Support for English Learning Scale to Chinese Postgraduate English Education: A Preliminary Pilot Study

Social support is an important part of second-language learning, but many existing instruments and empirical models have been developed mainly for school-age learners. Postgraduate English majors study in a more independent, research-oriented, and feedback-intensive environment, so it remains unclear whether a multidimensional social support scale works in the same way for this group. This preliminary pilot study adapted the Social Support for English Learning Scale (SSELS) to Chinese postgraduate English education and examined it with 31 students from five Chinese universities. The questionnaire measured teacher/supervisor support, family academic support, family autonomy support, peer support, English learning self-efficacy, and self-rated academic achievement. The adapted subscales showed high internal consistency. A preliminary exploratory component inspection produced four components, explaining 79.44% of the variance, but the loading pattern did not clearly reproduce the original four-factor model. Because of the small sample size and low KMO value, factor validity remains undetermined. Exploratory regression models showed that family autonomy support reached statistical significance in relation to self-efficacy, whereas peer support reached statistical significance in relation to self-rated achievement. These findings should be read as feasibility evidence and as hypotheses for larger studies, not as confirmatory validation evidence. Overall, this study provides initial evidence and methodological directions for future research on social support in advanced EFL education.