Anxiety, enjoyment and boredom in online foreign language learning: A systematic review

This systematic review provides an overall picture of three commonly researched academic emotions (i.e., anxiety, enjoyment, and boredom) in online foreign language learning through the lens of the control-value theory, by focusing on two critical issues, namely their antecedents and roles. Based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, three well-known databases (i.e., Web of Science, ERIC, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses) were searched and 79 studies were selected for final review. The review shows that anxiety, enjoyment, and boredom in online foreign language learning are associated with a combination of proximal antecedents (i.e., control and value appraisals), distal individual antecedents (e.g., background factors, individual traits and abilities), and environmental antecedents, including teacher-related, peer-related, and technology-related factors, as well as the mode of online learning itself. Regarding the roles of these emotions, the study reveals that anxiety, enjoyment, and boredom influence learners' online foreign language learning practices and outcomes (e.g., achievement, engagement, willingness to communicate) in different ways, and their roles are generally ambivalent, positive and negative respectively. The implications of these findings include improving online foreign language teaching by enhancing teachers' understanding of students' emotional experiences in online classes, and providing potential directions for future research, such as diversifying the research sites and participants, focusing more on non-traditional and informal ways of online learning, and attaching greater importance to online foreign language learners' emotions in relation to particular knowledge or skills.