scholarly journals Chinese English as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Psychological Well-Being as Predictors of Their Work Engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiansui Kong

Work engagement is widely acknowledged as an influential element in teachers’ professional success; thus, remarkable attention has been paid to the physical and psychological predictors of this construct. Yet, the antecedents of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ work engagement have rarely been studied. To narrow the existing gap, the current inquiry aimed to delve into the psychological determinants of teacher work engagement by scrutinizing the role of psychological well-being and self-efficacy in Chinese EFL teachers’ engagement. To this end, three close-ended questionnaires were given to 304 Chinese EFL teachers via WeChat messenger. Conducting correlational analyses, positive and substantial relationships were discovered between psychological well-being, self-efficacy, and teaching engagement. The function that psychological well-being and self-efficacy may serve in Chinese EFL teachers’ engagement was also assessed using path analysis. Chinese EFL teachers’ work engagement was found to be considerably affected by their sense of efficacy and well-being. Some pedagogical implications that might be noteworthy for teachers and institutional administrators are finally discussed.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuena Zhang

Psychological well-being is considered a key component for the mental and physical health of individuals that is influenced by various attributive factors. Some of the important attributes that have a constructive and encouraging effect on the improvement and progress of good habits, positive thinking, behavior, and well-being of individuals like teachers are emotions. Educators’ emotions and emotive features have essential roles in educational circumstances as they affect nearly all facets of their occupation. Moreover, optimism as a new concept is changing from the inspection on positive psychology, social principle, and communal school possessions in education. The present review surveyed the role that affectivity and optimism have regarding the psychological well-being of EFL teachers. In brief, the implications for educators, school managers, teacher-trainers, and forthcoming researchers are provided.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 8-22
Author(s):  
Nada A. Alqarni

Research on language teachers’ psychology has been shown to play a central role in the quality of teaching and student achievement. However, there is little empirical evidence to investigate the relationship between perception of stress, types of stressors, and well-being among foreign language teachers at university levels, particularly in monolingual contexts. The present study seeks to investigate the impact of stress, the number and type of stressors (i.e., chronic and stressful life events), and demographic variables (i.e., age, gender, and the length of teaching experience) on university-level EFL teachers’ levels of well-being. The data were collected through an online survey of 53 university-level EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia. A Pearson correlation was carried out to investigate the relationship between EFL teachers’ well-being, their perception of stress, and number of stressors. A multiple regression analysis was also run to examine if EFL teachers’ levels of stress, number and types of stressors, and demographic variables can predict their psychological well-being. The quantitative findings demonstrated a significant negative relationship between well-being and levels of stress. The findings also showed a significant positive relationship between the EFL teachers’ well-being and their good physical health. The results of the multiple regression indicated that high levels of well-being were predicted by low levels of stress and good physical health. This study, moreover, suggested an advantage for females in terms of psychological well-being among foreign language teachers. The findings also demonstrated that a stressful life with a heavy workload and financial concerns can negatively impact language teachers’ well-being. These findings highlight the importance of considering issues related to teachers’ psychological well-being. In line with these findings, several pedagogical implications were offered.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Comfort Pratt ◽  
Amani Zaier ◽  
Yanlin Wang

Americans do not study foreign languages long enough to achieve communicative competence, and that poses economic and security problems for the nation as well as career and personal limitations for individuals. Despite the plethora of research studies on effective approaches and methods for teaching foreign languages, there is evidence in the literature that foreign language students often experience a loss of interest in the languages, and there is a critical need to investigate the causes of the lack of interest and propose solutions. To that end, this study took a look at the possible role played by teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in their ability or inability to maintain their students’ interest in the target languages. By means of an online survey administered to foreign language teachers, this mixed methods study investigated their beliefs about their ability to impact their students positively and their general level of efficacy for teaching foreign languages. Findings revealed that the teachers overwhelmingly believed that they had a positive impact. However, their general level of efficacy was mildly high and there was no significant correlation between the teachers’ sense of efficacy and their ability to maintain their students’ interest in the languages. Implications for foreign language teacher preparation and professional development point to the need to develop a strong sense of efficacy as well as strategies for positively impacting students to maintain their interest in the language.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yawen Han ◽  
Yongliang Wang

As the forerunners of education, teachers and their psycho-affective variables have been the focus of numerous studies in the past decades. To add to this line of inquiry, the present study aimed to scrutinize the correlation among English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' self-efficacy, work engagement, and reflection in the context of China. To do so, three previously validated questionnaires related to each of the variables were distributed among Chinese EFL teachers with various experiences and academic degrees, and a sample of 614 completed the questionnaires. The results of Pearson's Product-moment correlation revealed that the participants' self-efficacy, work engagement, and reflection were positively correlated. Moreover, the results of regression analysis and ANOVA demonstrated that Chinese EFL teachers' self-efficacy and work engagement significantly predicted their reflection. The findings have viable takeaways for EFL teachers and teacher education programs in that they can invest more time and energy in promoting psychological factors in teaching the English language along with pedagogical issues.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 352-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Bonino ◽  
Federica Graziano ◽  
Martina Borghi ◽  
Davide Marengo ◽  
Giorgia Molinengo ◽  
...  

Abstract. This research developed a new scale to evaluate Self-Efficacy in Multiple Sclerosis (SEMS). The aim of this study was to investigate dimensionality, item functioning, measurement invariance, and concurrent validity of the SEMS scale. Data were collected from 203 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients (mean age, 39.5 years; 66% women; 95% having a relapsing remitting form of MS). Fifteen items of the SEMS scale were submitted to patients along with measures of psychological well-being, sense of coherence, depression, and coping strategies. Data underwent Rasch analysis and correlation analysis. Rasch analysis indicates the SEMS as a multidimensional construct characterized by two correlated dimensions: goal setting and symptom management, with satisfactory reliability coefficients. Overall, the 15 items reported acceptable fit statistics; the scale demonstrated measurement invariance (with respect to gender and disease duration) and good concurrent validity (positive correlations with psychological well-being, sense of coherence, and coping strategies and negative correlations with depression). Preliminary evidence suggests that SEMS is a psychometrically sound measure to evaluate perceived self-efficacy of MS patients with moderate disability, and it would be a valuable instrument for both research and clinical applications.


Author(s):  
Goudarz Alibakhshi ◽  
Fariborz Nikdel ◽  
Akram Labbafi

AbstractTeacher self-efficacy has been abundantly studied. However, it seems that the consequences of teachers’ self-efficacy have not been appropriately explored yet. The research objective was to investigate the consequences of teachers’ teaching self-efficacy. The researchers used a qualitative research method. They collected the data through semi-structured interviews with 20 EFL teachers who were selected through purposive sampling. The interviews were content analyzed thematically. Findings showed that self-efficacy has different consequences: pedagogical, learner-related, and psychological. Each consequence has several sub-categories. It is concluded that high self-efficacy affects teachers’ teaching practices, learners’ motivation, and achievement. It also affects teachers’ burn-out status, psychological being, as well as their job satisfaction. The findings can be theoretically and pedagogically important to EFL teachers, teacher-trainers, and administrators of educational settings.


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