Turkish EFL Instructors’ Level of Burnout and the Underlying Reasons

Abstract

Teaching is a profession in which individuals interact and construct their identities in relation to others; therefore, the challenges are not limited to the restrictions regarding the curriculum or tests. Instructors may feel stressed and restricted when dealing with certain social problems in the EFL context. This can lead to undesirable attitudes towards themselves, their students and profession, and lead to eventual burnout. This study aims to identify the level of burnout EFL instructors experience on different components of the burnout scale, find the possible effect of type of university and the degree on the EFL instructors’ level of burnout, and indicate possible reasons for burnout and EFL instructors’ suggestions towards preventing it. The results of the questionnaire completed by sixty-four EFL instructors in Turkey indicated the level of burnout of the EFL instructors for Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization was high irrespective of the type of institution. There was a significant difference between state and private university educators’ perceptions of the burnout level for these two dimensions whereas there was no significant difference for Personal Achievement. Semi-structured interviews conducted with seven instructors provided details regarding the reasons for burnout and ways to avoid future burnout in the EFL context.

Keywords

• Burnout,EFL instructor,language teaching

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