Investigating in-class and after-class boredom among advanced learners of English: intensity, interrelationships and learner profiles

Abstract Although the number of studies into boredom in second and/or foreign language (L2) learning is evidently on the rise and our understanding of this negative emotion has been considerably extended, surprisingly, empirical evidence is still scant with respect to boredom experienced in out-of-school situations. This study addresses this gap by: (1) examining the relative contribution of factors underlying in-class and after-class boredom, (2) investigating relationships among these factors, (3) identifying distinct learner profiles connected with these factors, and (4) exploring the role of group-related variables in this respect. The data were collected from 107 Polish university students majoring in English through two tools designed for this purpose. The results demonstrated that in-class and after-class boredom are distinct yet multidimensional constructs and factors underpinning them cannot be easily separated. Four in-class and after-class boredom-specific cluster groups were identified and the impact of gender and attainment measures for some of these factors was found. Future research directions are discussed as well.