Mediation Effect of Environment and Infrastructure on English Language Learning in the Saudi Students: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach

Abstract

The study aims to determine the mediation effect (total, direct, and indirect effect) of the environment and infrastructure on the English language learning (ELL) of students in higher education in Saudi Arabia. A self-administered web-based structured questionnaire was employed for the collection. A cross-sectional descriptive research design was used to form the foundation of the research study. A test re-test and an inter-rater test were performed to check the inter-class correlation coefficient between the responses of two-time intervals and two experts. The pilot survey was conducted with a small sample of students. Cronbach's alpha and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) values were utilized in order to examine the reliability and validity of the results. In addition to this, the discriminant validity of the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) and Composite Reliability (CR) measures was examined.The sample size of the study was 407, and a random sampling was used during the study. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique was used for mediation analysis for the evaluation of total, direct, and indirect effects. The study's findings concluded that the English language infrastructure (INF) has a greater mediating impact on the learning of the English language (ELL) than that of the environment for the English language (ENR). The SPSS-AMOS 23.0 program was used for all types of statistical calculations. Despite the above meaningful findings, the current study suffered from poor real-time data collection from the Saudi students. This study paves the way for moderation or group analysis between the environment, infrastructure, and English language learning among higher education students in Saudi Arabia.