We tend to notice anxiety when learners struggle, or enjoyment when things go well. But there’s another emotion sitting quietly in many classrooms, often unnoticed, yet surprisingly powerful: boredom.
A recent large-scale systematic review by Zhang & Li (2025) pulls together what we currently know about foreign language boredom, & the picture is more complex (and more consequential) than many of us might expect.
The study
The authors conducted a systematic literature review, analysing 111 peer-reviewed empirical studies published up to September 2024. These studies spanned multiple international contexts, though most focused on adult university learners studying English as a foreign language.
In practical terms, most of this research takes a snapshot approach. Learners usually fill in questionnaires at a single point in time, & researchers then look for patterns between boredom, classroom conditions, learner characteristics & outcomes like engagement or achievement. Studies that follow learners over time, test classroom interventions or actively try to reduce boredom are still relatively rare.
Importantly, the review did not just ask whether boredom exists, but mapped how researchers have studied its causes, its effects, its relationship to other emotions & how (or whether) it has been measured in nuanced ways.
The findings
First, research interest has exploded. Only one study appeared in 2018, but by 2024 there were over 40 in a single year. Boredom has clearly moved from the margins of SLA to the centre of the emotions conversation.
Second, boredom is not neutral. Meta-analytic evidence reviewed in the paper shows a consistent negative relationship between boredom & L2 achievement, with correlations around r = −0.24 to −0.30. In other words, bored learners tend to learn less.
Third, boredom rarely travels alone. Across studies, it is negatively correlated with enjoyment & positively correlated with anxiety. A learner can feel bored & anxious at the same time, for example when tasks feel meaningless yet evaluative. This aligns neatly with Pekrun’s control–value theory: boredom emerges when learners perceive low value, low control or both.
Fourth, boredom affects far more than test scores. The review links it to reduced engagement, weaker motivation, lower willingness to communicate & poorer use of learning strategies. Unsurprisingly, if we provide our learners with a series of tasks they neither believe in nor feel challenged by, their attention drifts, time slows & effort drops.
Finally, there are striking gaps. Very few studies explore boredom’s dimensions in depth, track how it fluctuates over time or test concrete instructional interventions to reduce it. We know boredom matters, but we are only beginning to understand how to address it.
Context & connections
This review reflects a broader shift in SLA from an “anxiety-first” mindset to a richer emotional landscape that includes enjoyment, boredom, pride & emotional regulation. It also resonates with classroom research showing that under-challenge can be just as demotivating as overload.
Crucially, boredom here is not laziness. It is often a rational response to repetitive tasks, unclear purposes or a mismatch between learner capacity & task design. A highly capable adult learner repeating controlled practice long past its usefulness is not disengaged by nature; the task has simply stopped offering value.
Teacher takeaways?
- Boredom is a diagnostic signal, not a learner flaw. It often points to issues of task value, challenge or autonomy.
- ‘English’ is not enough. Learners rarely engage with a lesson just to acquire language. Revisit your communicative aims: beyond language practice, what else do learners gain or learn from the lesson?
- Emotional climate counts. Teacher enthusiasm, clarity & perceived support consistently relate to lower boredom levels.
For language educators, this research is a reminder that what learners feel while learning is not peripheral. This is not a challenge unique to ELT, but it has particular implications for our field. If lessons are only about language, stripped of meaning, relevance or connection to the wider world, boredom quietly erodes attention, motivation & opportunities to practise, often long before failure becomes visible.
How do you recognise boredom in your adult classrooms, & what do you do when you sense it creeping in?
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