Mapping the research on foreign language boredom: A systematic literature review

Recent years have witnessed growing attention to foreign language boredom and its effects on language acquisition, but there still lacks a systematic review in this field. This paper aims to address this gap and presents a systematic review by synthesising general characteristics, methodological features and research foci of empirical studies on the foreign language boredom. A total of 111 peer-reviewed empirical studies were selected, coded and analyzed based on the PRISMA guidelines. The results revealed a surging focus on the foreign language boredom after 2018, the majority of which came from Chinese, Polish and Iranian researchers, and the foreign language boredom among university learners were well investigated. Methodologically, studies on foreign language boredom predominantly employed the observational design, cross-sectional data collection, questionnaire-based instruments, and the analysis method of structural equation modelling. Finally, the included studies put great focus on antecedents and effects of foreign language boredom, but its dimensions and measurement are rarely explored. Scarce explorations have been made in terms of instructional interventions to mitigate the effects of foreign language boredom. This systematic review provides an panoramic view of foreign language boredom for researchers and educators, and also underscores the need for more longitudinal and intervention-based studies on the foreign language boredom in the future studies.