An eye-tracking study on the effect of teacher image in Chinese teaching short videos

In teaching short videos, the teacher's image can quickly capture students' attention and enhance interactivity and engagement in learning. This study, using eye-tracking experiment, explores the cognitive processing characteristics of the teacher's image in Chinese teaching short videos and its impact on learning outcomes. The experiment recruited 30 Russian international students in China. The results show that, in the process of second language acquisition, the teacher's image of the target language is more likely to attract learners, while the teacher's image of a non-target language is more beneficial for students in acquiring knowledge. The learners' attention distribution toward the teacher's image presents a three-tier structure: "the dominant gaze, supplementary lip movements, and peripheral body." Furthermore, learners with different Chinese proficiency levels exhibit significant differences in gaze duration. Based on the above findings, this research proposes optimization suggestions for the visual elements of international Chinese teaching short videos.