# Exploring learning engagement among Spanish undergraduates in Asia: the chain mediating roles of flow experience and self-determined motivation in short video platform use

## TL;DR

This study explores how using short video platforms affects Spanish students' learning engagement in Asia, highlighting the roles of flow experience and self-determined motivation.

## Contribution

The study introduces a chained mediation model linking short video use, flow experience, and self-determined motivation to learning engagement.

## Key findings

- Functional use of short video platforms significantly enhances learning engagement (total effect of 0.677).
- Flow experience and self-determined motivation mediate the effect of functional use on learning engagement.
- Recreational use partially mediates through flow experience, accounting for 26.6% of the total effect.

## Abstract

This paper examines the effects of short video platform use on learning engagement among undergraduate students majoring in Spanish in Asia, focusing on the chained mediating roles of flow experience and self-determined motivation. With the rapid growth of short video platforms, particularly in Asia, such platforms have become an integral part of university students’ daily lives. Although short videos are easily accessible due to low usage barriers, they may also cause problems such as distraction and time wastage, making it necessary to investigate their role in educational contexts.

To explore the impact of both functional and recreational uses of short video platforms on learning engagement and the underlying psychological mechanisms, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 412 undergraduate Spanish majors from China, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam.

The findings indicate that functional use of short video platforms plays a significant role in enhancing learning engagement, with a total effect of 0.677. This effect is achieved through the reinforcement of flow experience (0.815, p < 0.001) and self-determined motivation (0.326, p < 0.001). Moreover, flow experience and self-determined motivation form a chained mediating mechanism, in which the mediating effect of flow experience on motivation related to recreational use accounts for 26.6% of the total effect (0.180).

These results provide theoretical insights for educators on how short video platforms can be effectively used to facilitate student learning engagement. At the same time, they highlight the potential negative impact of excessive recreational use of such platforms in learning design. Future research should further examine the effects of different types of short video content and extend the investigation to other language-learning environments and cultural contexts, thereby enriching the applicability of short videos in educational research.