Book Description

This dissertation study investigates instances of boredom in the foreign language (German) classroom. The study was driven by the following three questions: (1) What features of the classroom environment tend to be associated with boredom in foreign language students?; (2) What beliefs and attitudes do foreign language students and teachers hold regarding the concept of boredom in the classroom, its causes, and its consequences?; and (3) How does boredom in foreign language class relate to other aspects of the language learning experience, e.g. attitude toward one's course and teacher, motivation to learn the language, anxiety when using the language in front of one's teacher and peers, as well as proneness to boredom in a more general sense? Participants were 57 university-level learners of German in their second semester of instruction, along with their three teachers. A mixed-methodology was used that included Likert-type questionnaires, field notes taken during class observations, as well as four formats of semi-structured interview with a total of 17 participants. Central to the study was the use of the "Real-Time Boredom Questionnaire" (RTBQ), an instrument designed by the researcher in order to capture students' in-the-moment feelings of boredom at several intervals during multiple 50-minute class meetings. Statistical analysis of the questionnaire data revealed that students interpret their feelings of boredom during class time in relation to their attitude toward their teacher, and that attitude toward the teacher is a more meaningful predictor of student boredom than are any particular classroom activities and their features.