Enjoyment, Anxiety, and Boredom in Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language: Their Predictive Roles in Academic Achievement
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Abstract
Background and Objectives: Emotion research in L2 acquisition has shifted from solely focusing on foreign language anxiety (FLA) to exploring a range of emotions, including foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language boredom (FLB). Studies, mainly with L2 English learners, consistently show FLE positively and FLA/FLB negatively predicting academic achievement. However, research on the learning emotions of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners remains limited, particularly concerning emotions beyond anxiety among Thai learners. Thailand is a key context for CFL, and its trilingual university students are the main learning group. This gap in knowledge, especially regarding FLE and FLB, hinders effective teaching interventions. This research aims to investigate the status of the three core emotions (FLE, FLA, and FLB) among Thai trilingual CFL learners and their predictive effects on overall academic achievement in their Chinese Comprehensive course. The goal is to expand the research base and provide insights for improving CFL teaching effectiveness in Thailand.
Methods: Eighty Thai trilingual learners of CFL in their Advanced Chinese course were surveyed using adapted scales for FLE, FLA, and FLB. SPSS 23 and SPSSPRO were used for reliability, validity, descriptive, and correlation analysis. Stepwise linear regression assessed the emotions’ predictive effect on the students’ overall academic achievement.
Results: The learners reported relatively high enjoyment alongside moderate anxiety and boredom, with positive emotions generally outweighing negative ones. Enjoyment was mainly influenced by teachers, while anxiety was most evident in reading and writing tasks. Enjoyment showed a weak positive relationship with academic achievement, whereas anxiety had a moderate negative relationship and boredom a weak negative one. Enjoyment was weakly negatively related to both anxiety and boredom, while anxiety was moderately positively related to boredom. In terms of prediction, enjoyment had a small-to-moderate positive effect on achievement, anxiety had a moderate negative effect, and boredom showed no significant effect.
Application of this study: The findings validate the Control-Value and Broaden-and-Build theories, offering two key applications for teaching advanced Thai CFL learners. Teachers should enhance emotional support and foster a positive classroom climate through affective engagement, positive feedback, and interactive teaching to increase enjoyment and reduce anxiety and boredom. In addition, instructional design should aim to reduce anxiety in order to prevent boredom, through approaches such as sequencing learning activities, providing clear guidance, promoting collaborative learning, and incorporating varied activities. These should be implemented alongside the integration of emotion regulation and authentic assessment, which can help reduce test-related stress, maintain continuity in learning, and promote both language development and emotional well-being.
Conclusions: This research demonstrates that emotions play a significant role in the Chinese language learning achievement of Thai trilingual learners. The participants reported relatively high levels of FLE, while FLA and FLB remained at moderate levels. The findings indicate that enjoyment serves as a facilitating factor in language learning, whereas anxiety exerts a substantial negative influence on academic achievement and is associated with increased levels of boredom. These results reflect that positive and negative emotions do not operate independently but interact dynamically in shaping learners’ language learning experiences. Therefore, Chinese language instruction should place greater emphasis on fostering an emotionally supportive learning environment that enhances enjoyment, reduces anxiety, and encourages active learner engagement. Such an approach can contribute not only to improved language achievement but also to the long-term emotional well-being of learners.
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