A Study Of The Effect Of Foreign Language Learning Boredom On The English Performance Of Urban And Rural Senior High School Students

Since the positive psychology was brought into the field of second language acquisition research in 2012,researchers have attached more and more importance to affective factors,and the research perspective has gradually shifted from positive affective factors such as pleasure to negative affective factors such as anxiety and boredom.Previous studies have mostly focused on the effects of boredom on learners’ academic performance,with few studies examining the differences between urban and rural areas.At present,there is one domestic study on the dimension of Foreign Language Classroom Boredom,but there is no overall study on the difference between urban and rural areas in Foreign Language Learning Boredom(FLLB).Therefore,it is necessary to investigate the effect of senior high school students’ FLLB on their English performance and to discuss the urban-rural differences.Based on the control-value theory and the affective filtering hypothesis,this study took154 students from an urban senior high school and 133 students from a rural senior high school in Kunming City as the subjects of the study.Through questionnaire survey and data analysis,we mainly explore two questions: 1)What is the current situation of FLLB among senior high school students? Is there a significant difference between urban and rural areas? 2)What is the effect of senior high school students’ FLLB on their English performance? Is there a significant difference between urban and rural areas?The results show that: 1)The overall high school students’ FLLB is at a moderate level(M=2.52),and the Power Point Presentation Boredom hits the highest level among the seven dimensions.The level of FLLB among urban senior high school students is lower than that of rural senior high school students,but the level of the Power Point Presentation Boredom among urban senior high school students is higher than that of rural senior high school students.And there is a significant difference in Foreign Language Classroom Boredom,Under-challenging Task Boredom,Power Point Presentation Boredom,Homework Boredom,and Teacher-dislike Boredom,but no significant difference in other dimensions;2)There is a moderate negative correlation between FLLB and English performance among all the senior high school students(r=-0.527),and the level of FLLB(X)has a negative predictive effect on English performance(Y)with the regression equation Y=125.964-14.989 X.For urban senior high school students,r is-0.470 and the regression equation Y=120.944-12.372 X;for rural high school students,r is-0.570 and the regression equation Y=132.555-18.041 X.Based on the findings,three teaching suggestions are proposed: 1)avoiding over-reliance on PPT in English classes(especially in urban English classes);2)creating a positive emotional experience in and out of the classes(especially in rural English classes);3)assigning tasks and homework flexibly by considering both fun and knowledge.