Nothing ventured, nothing gained: The impact of enjoyment and boredom on willingness to communicate in online foreign language classrooms

Although the role of emotions in willingness to communicate (WTC) of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) has triggered abundant research in traditional, in-person language classes, little is known about how these emotions affect learners’ communication behavior in online classrooms. Adopting a mixed-method design, the present study investigated the effect of foreign language boredom (FLB) and foreign language enjoyment (FLE) on EFL learners’ L2 WTC in online classrooms. The data gathered through an online survey from 469 EFL learners were analysed through multiple linear regression, dominance analysis, and mediation analysis. The findings revealed that FLB had a considerably strong effect on L2 WTC, although this effect was to some extent diminished by FLE, FLB overshadowed learners’ online learning experience. To gain a deeper understanding of the relationship among these variables, qualitative data was gathered from 20 participants through semi-structured interviews. The findings further supported the quantitative data and suggested that the learners believed the problems they faced in online classrooms led to boredom and discouraged them from engaging in communication. The findings are discussed in terms of implications for teachers to improve the experience of online English education.