Another look at boredom in language instruction: The role of the predictable and the unexpected

• Published in: Studies in second language learning and teaching Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 15 - 40
• Main Authors: Kruk, Mariusz, Pawlak, Mirosław, Zawodniak, Joanna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kalisz Wojskowe Biuro Historyczne im. gen. broni Kazimierza Sosnkowskiego 01.03.2021; Military Historical Bureau of Lieutenant-General Kazimierz Sosnkowski; Adam Mickiewicz University; Adam Mickiewicz University Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts; Adam Mickiewicz University Department of English Studies; Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań
• Subjects: Advanced Students; Attention; Attitude Change; boredom; Education; Educational Experience; Educational Psychology; Emotions; English (Second Language); english as a foreign language; English as a second language; English as a second language instruction; English language learners; Foreign Countries; Foreign languages learning; Guidelines; Individual Characteristics; Individual Differences; l2 instruction; Language acquisition; Language instruction; Language Research; Language Teachers; Learner Engagement; Learning Motivation; Learning Processes; Lesson Plans; Literature Reviews; Majors (Students); Methods; micro-perspective; Motivation; Positive Attitudes; Prediction; Psychological Patterns; Psychology; Rating Scales; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Student Attitudes; Student Characteristics; Student Motivation; Students; Study and teaching; Teaching Methods; Undergraduate Students; Poland; United Kingdom; boredom; L2 instruction; microperspective; English as a foreign language; negative emotions
• ISSN: 2083-5205; 2084-1965
• DOI: 10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.1.2

Although recent years have seen a growing interest in positive emotions in second or foreign language learning and teaching, negative emotions are always present in the classroom and they deserve to be investigated in their own right. The article focuses on boredom, a construct that has been explored in educational psychology but has received only scant attention from second language acquisition researchers. It reports a study which examined the changes in the levels of boredom experienced by 13 English majors in four EFL classes and the factors accounting for such changes. Using data obtained from a few different sources (i.e., boredom grids, narratives, interviews, class evaluations and lesson plans), it was found that although boredom can be attributed to different constellations of factors, it was mainly traced to repetitiveness, monotony and predictability of what transpired during a particular class.