The relationship between enjoyment, anxiety, and boredom and intrinsic motivation for Spanish language skills in after-class learning: A self-determination theory perspective

Drawing on self-determination theory, this study examined the relationships between after-class emotions (enjoyment, anxiety, and boredom) and intrinsic motivation across four Spanish language skills in a self-directed L3 learning context. Participants were 612 Spanish majors from six universities in Northern China. To capture positive after-class emotional experiences, a three-dimensional after-class Spanish enjoyment scale was developed and validated. Latent profile analysis identified three distinct configurations of skill-specific intrinsic motivation: balanced, high writing–speaking, and high listening–reading. Multinomial logistic regression indicated that autonomy- and mastery-based enjoyment were associated with higher odds of membership in the balanced and high writing–speaking profiles, whereas effort-management anxiety and monotony-related boredom were associated with lower-motivation configurations. Psychological network analysis revealed clustering of motivation along productive and receptive channels, with the strongest edge observed between speaking and writing motivation. Boredom facets were densely interconnected, and anxiety about effort management showed a negative association with writing motivation. These findings provide new measurement tools and empirical evidence for understanding how after-class emotional experiences shape motivational configurations across language skills in self-directed foreign language learning. Pedagogically, the results highlight the importance of designing after-class learning tasks that enhance enjoyment while reducing monotony and effort-related anxiety.