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This exploratory qualitative case study investigates how graduate students in education experience, attribute, and combat academic boredom. Three areas of concern are addressed: (a) the contributing factors to boredom, (b) how attributional style (internal vs. external) relates to coping with boredom, and (c) the differences between combating class-related boredom and learning-related boredom. Results showed that the onset of boredom was mostly influenced by a lack of interest, lack of utility value, and autonomy frustration. This study extended the existing literature by discovering an interaction between students’ attributional style and their coping strategies for boredom during classroom instruction. Specifically, students who argued that the instructor should hold more responsibility for boredom in class tended to take avoidance coping as their primary strategy (e.g., doodling). By comparison, students who opted to approach the problem positively (e.g., taking notes) are prone to attribute internally. Attribution does not appear to have a mediating effect on the relationship between experience of boredom and coping strategies for learning-related boredom. Implications for graduate and adult education and findings in the context of recent theoretical frameworks are discussed.

Grounded in social cognitive theory and expectancy-value theory, the current study aimed to present a demotivation scale -Learner Perceptions of Demotivators Scale (LPDS)designed specifically for use in L2 research and tested empirically to provide evidence of its construct, validity, and reliability. Study 1 sample consisted of 295 Chinese college English learners. An exploratory factor analysis offered preliminary support for a factor structure comprising three dimensions: negative teacher behavior, loss of task value, and low expectancy for success. Study 2 sample consisted of another 320 Chinese college English learners. The proposed factor structure was further corroborated through confirmatory factor analysis, and support for its validity was provided by means of correlating the three dimensions with academic performance and self-efficacy measures. Specifically, all the correlations were negative except for the positive association between academic performance and negative teacher behavior. Further, whereas the model fit confirmed a well-fitting second-order model, one low first-order loading (negative teacher behavior) does not seem to support a second-order factor model. Therefore, the three dimensions should be regarded as separate to best capture the nuances of different demotivators. By establishing a nomological network (demotivation, academic performance, and self-efficacy), the current study illuminates selected aspects of ESL pedagogy.

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