Beyond emotional exhaustion: Mapping proximal profiles and distal triggers of second language burnout in Chinese high school students

Abstract

Recently, burnout has attracted growing attention from psycholinguists due to the “emotional wave” in second language (L2) education. However, the triggers of burnout, especially among high school L2 learners, remain largely unknown. To address this gap, this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study, drawing on the control-value theory (CVT), aims to thoroughly explore both its proximal and distal antecedents among 411 Chinese high school L2 learners. Quantitatively, latent profile analysis (LPA), conducted using Mplus 8.7, identified four profiles as proximal antecedents: P1 (8.3 %): low control, low intrinsic value, low extrinsic value; P2 (52.1 %): moderate control, moderately high intrinsic value, moderately high extrinsic value; P3 (13.69 %): low control, moderately low intrinsic value, moderately high extrinsic value; and P4 (26.09 %): high control, high intrinsic value, high extrinsic value. The subsequent analysis using the modified Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars (BCH) method revealed that participants in P3 reported the highest levels of burnout, while those in P1 and P2 exhibited identical burnout levels. Participants in P4 experienced the least burnout. Qualitatively, interview data from 25 students analyzed with MAXQDA 2022 identified a series of specific distal antecedents, most of which were associated with perceived control, with some linked to perceived extrinsic value and physical fatigue. Notably, no distal antecedents were related to perceived intrinsic value. The theoretical and pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.