When foreign language education is compulsory, competitive, or coercive, how learners cope with stress can determine outcomes, including value of the subject, persistence on task, and level of proficiency. The development of adaptive or maladaptive coping processes toward situated learning goals is influenced by learners' beliefs about themselves and their experiences. This study consisted of 157 university learners in Japan who responded to an open-ended questionnaire about the ways they lost, regained, and maintained motivation when learning English as a foreign language (EFL) as a compulsory subject. Data were analyzed using a framework of coping processes. Short- and long-term coping processes were compared between learners with positive and negative self-concepts regarding EFL. This paper reports on the stages and types of developmental coping processes that can lead to building a wide range of adaptive processes, or to self-defeating helplessness, when facing impediments to learning. Findings indicate that establishing adaptive processes early in learning appeared critical for long-term self-confidence and eventual proficiency. Moreover, learners with positive self-concepts more often reported using their social networks for motivational support than learners with negative self-concepts, who believed such support would have helped them to remotivate. Implications for teaching are also discussed. (Contains 1 note, 4 tables, and 8 figures.)