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The present study aims at delving into English as foreign language students' demotivation, burnout, mastery goal orientation, and perceptions of classroom activities. This is accomplished by building a causal structural model through which the associations among the constructs are estimated. The Persian version of the 'de-motivation scale' designed by Sakai and Kichuki (System 37:57-69, 2009) is used to assess demotivation. It measures six constructs: teachers, characteristics of classes, experiences of failure, class environment, class materials, and lack of interest. To gauge burnout, student version of 'Maslach Burnout Inventory' (Schaufeli et al., Psychology, 33(5): [464][465][466][467][468][469][470][471][472][473][474][475][476][477][478][479][480][481] 2002) is employed. It measures three dimensions of burnout, namely, emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and academic inefficacy. The Persian version of the 'Students Perceptions of Classroom Activities' scale designed by Gentry and Gable (My class activities: A survey instrument to assess students' perceptions of interest, challenge, choice, and enjoyment in their classrooms, 2001) is utilized in determining student perceptions of their classes. The scale assesses four perceptions: interest, challenge, choice, and joy. Students' goal orientation is measured by the translated version of ' Achievement Goal Orientation Inventory' designed by Midgley et al. (Contemporary Educational Psychology, 23 (2):113-31, 1998). The results display a good overall fit of the proposed model with the empirical data. In particular, demotivators positively and significantly predict student burnout and the two internal demotivators namely, 'lack of interest' and 'experiences of failure' negatively and significantly impact on student mastery goal orientation. The results also indicate that student burnout negatively and significantly predict student mastery goal orientation and positive perceptions of classroom activities. Student perceptions of interest and joy, on the other hand, positively and significantly play an important role in mastery goal orientation. Student perceptions and mastery goal orientation have positive effects on student achievement.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design a new instrument toward assessing English as foreign language students’ academic buoyancy and to investigate the association between academic buoyancy and three demographic variables of GPA, gender and educational level using the newly-designed questionnaire. Design/methodology/approach To do so, a new questionnaire consisting of 27 items was designed which measures four aspects of L2 buoyancy, namely, sustainability, regularity adaptation, positive personal eligibility and positive acceptance of academic life. The scale was then translated into Persian and its validity (computed via confirmatory factor analysis estimates) and reliability (computed via Cronbach’s α) were substantiated. Findings All the items were found to have accepted factor loading. The results regarding the association between academic buoyancy and demographic variables along with the relevant discussion are presented. Originality/value Though over the years, researchers have used a variety of methods and scales to measure buoyancy, all of the instruments have been consisted of few items (usually four) which do not include the many aspects related to student buoyancy as one of the tenets of individual differences in positive psychology. Moreover, the same materials were used for distinctive settings of school and workplace in which the individuals adapt different goal orientations and perspectives. Consequently, the need for designing a comprehensive and specific instrument which includes all the aspects of academic buoyancy focusing on EFL students in higher education is manifested.