Foreign language boredom and learner enthusiasm: a dynamic structural equation modeling approach

Abstract This study examines the distinct yet co-evolving nature of foreign language (FL) boredom and FL learner enthusiasm, two pivotal emotions that influence learners’ engagement and motivation in different ways. Data were collected at 10-minute intervals from 83 Persian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) during six one-hour class sessions using the experience sampling method (ESM). The ESM data were analyzed using dynamic structural equation modeling (DSEM). At the within-person level, the results revealed that both emotions exhibited significant autoregressive effects, with boredom displaying a stronger tendency to persist over time than enthusiasm. This suggests that FL boredom and FL learner enthusiasm follow divergent adaptive processing trajectories, indicating that they are not merely emotional opposites. At the between-person level, learners with higher average levels of learner enthusiasm tended to report lower average levels of boredom. Learners also differed in the strength of the temporal coupling between the two emotions, indicating substantial individual variation in how boredom and learner enthusiasm influenced one another over time. These findings suggest that boredom and learner enthusiasm interact within a highly dynamic emotional system. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of emotional dynamics in FL learning, clarifying learner enthusiasm as a distinct classroom emotion and emphasizing the importance of managing classroom emotions and offering insights for more effective instructional strategies.