Stress is an area of interest among researchers and practitioners in many fields – including teaching. Much of the research on causes of stress for teachers has focused on teachers in general; only a few studies have focused on EFL teachers. The purpose of this study was to investigate potential inside and outside classroom sources of stress in teachers of EFL in Indonesia. Results showed that it is generally the case that the major sources of stress were those related to issues outside the classroom; yet in each teacher, the trend was different. Generally, it can be concluded that those areas of stress of EFL teachers could be linked to the issue of being non-native, and more importantly, to their view of language ability. However it should once again be noted that being non-native is only one of the several possible sources of stress; Yet, it is perhaps L1 also has the infuence on EFL teacher stress. In addition, EFL teachers showed the most concerns were mainly in their early years of experience. This can also highlight the important role that pre-service teacher training courses can play in identifying and addressing the issue of stress, and also in preparing special programs to focus on those areas that are more exclusive to EFL teachers.
INTRODUCTION
Teacher is the advanced milestone to mold the better generation of a notion. The teacher is also the ultimate key to educational change and school improvement (Dillon and Maguire, 2001: 7). Teachers have always been the centre of attention in the classroom, yet ironically their concerns and needs have not always been addressed in the same way. Nowadays EFL/ESL teachers, along with teachers in other fields, have heavier responsibilities than before, and studies show that teaching is one of the most stressful jobs in comparison to other occupations. Recently, the innovations in the field of education and language teaching have created some havier responsibilities and roles for teachers. Teachers are no longer looked at as the mere transferors of knowledge, but as individuals who need to communicate and engage with students more than before and to care for their inner worlds.
EFL teachers are expected to empathize with learners, try to motivate them and encourage them to participate in classroom activities, and generally speaking, to help facilitate learning. However, in addition to all these roles, they also need to engage in many other tasks such as paperwork, evaluating students, preparing for the class, remaining up-to- date with their teaching area and preparing their teaching materials. At the same time, they might have positive or negative encounters with parents, colleagues, administrative authorities and students, all of which can affect them psychologically.
Altogether, the combination of all these new ideas for better teaching have left the individual teacher feeling more accountable than before, yet more confused, and arguably less supported. Both teachers and learners are active participants in the language class, with their own share of roles. Since they are constantly interacting with each other, we cannot consider the emotional state of one group whilst ignoring the concerns of the other. The general outcome of the lesson depends on the quality of such interactions. Therefore attention to teachers’ needs and concerns is very important, especially in an area such as language teaching, where more interaction between the teacher and learner is involved.
LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Teacher and Teacher Stress
Stress is a response syndrome mediated by an appraisal of threat to the teacher’s self-esteem or well-being” (Kyriacou (2001) as quoted by Mohannadi and Capel (2007: 2)). Stress is also defined as an excess of demand made upon the adaptive capabilities of the mind and body and is seen in the form of a physical demand, a mental demand or both (Mrozek in http www.cedu.niu.edu.) Stress is usually considered to be the effect or the response to a stimulus. What is usually implied by stress is the negative experience of emotional feelings; nevertheless, stress is not always negative. It can sometimes act as a motivating power for individuals.
In the field of education, teacher stress may be defined as “the experience by a teacher of unpleasant, negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, tension, frustration or depression, resulting from some aspect of their work as a teacher” (Kyriacou (1987: 146) as quoted by Mohannadi and Capel (2007: 2)). . Such a definition is based on a model which views stress as a negative emotional experience. Teacher stress is therefore seen mainly as a negative effect, with diverse psychological (e.g., job dissatisfaction), physiological (e.g., high blood pressure) and behavioural (e.g., absenteeism) links.
One of the most obvious issues facing EFL teachers and causing them stress can be their own language proficiency. In fact, many of the issues discussed concerning language learner anxiety could be true for many English teachers. Ideally we assume that all language teachers have an acceptable proficiency in English, but as we know language learning is a never- ending process. Therefore “it is appropriate to think of a great number of language teachers as language learners –albeit advance ones” (Horwitz 1996:366).
Sometimes even when the teacher has enough language knowledge, he/she still might lack self-confidence in him/herself. According to Kim (2004:1): Many NNES [non-native English speaking] teachers-in-preparation and NNES professionals report suffering from an unnecessary level of emotional stress caused by language issues, which is detrimental to their confidence as teachers.
Although many NNES teachers-in-preparation have a good command of internalized L2 knowledge (linguistic competence), they may have difficulty using this knowledge in different contexts. Horwitz also mentions that for a non-native teacher, such lack of confidence can “inhibit a teacher’s ability to effectively present the target language, interact with students and serve as a positive role model as a language learner” (Horwitz 1996:366). When encouraging teachers to improve their student’s language skills, we sometimes forget that there are a group of teachers that lack confidence in their own language ability.
Furthermore, teaching is a highly stressful career, and teachers are leaving the profession at an alarming rate. Without effective teachers, class sizes increase, school administrators become frustrated, parental concerns grow, and stress levels increase (Fisher, 2011: 4). There are also other situations when teachers might feel stressed especially where language content is unpredictable as in methods like communicative language teaching. Therefore the teacher might face situations where he/she feels less confident in terms of his/her language ability.
METHODOLOGY
Since very little research has been carried out on the issue of teacher stress in the field of EFL/ESL, this study intends to investigate potential inside and outside classroom sources of stress in teachers of EFL.
A. The Participants
The participants in this study were 7 teachers of EFL or non-native teachers. The teachers were chosen randomly from various institution or schools level. At the time of this study, the majority teachers were Javanese. With the exception of some of the questions, which were more specific, the researcher asked teachers to consider their EFL teaching in general when answering the questions.
B. Data Collection Technique
In this research, two methods of data collection namely, qualitative and quantitative methods were used. The advantage of using more than one method of data collection is that it allows a triangulation of methods which gives the research more validity and provides a chance for the findings of one method to be cross-checked with the other. For the quantitative method, a questionnaire and for the qualitative approach a semi-structured interview, were applied.
The questionnaire consisted of 21 items based on a six-likert scale (a sample of the questionnaire is provided at Appendix A). It elicited EFL teachers’ opinions concerning issues that could be linked to stress, as well as some of their demographical information. In this research a ‘semi-structured’ interview was applied because of its flexibility and the degree of power and control it gives the researcher during the interview (Nunan, 1992). Furthermore, instead of a common face-to-face situation, this semi-structure interview was conducted through Email, making it what Bampton and Cowton (2002) call an ‘E-interview’, a relatively novel research method.
Applying such an interview technique may be rather unfamiliar in the domain of qualitative research. Nowadays, however, more researchers suggest the use of technology for qualitative, as well as quantitative research. Even though there are advantages and disadvantages to the separation of the interviewee and the interviewer (for instance a lack of tacit signs like their psychological and body language reactions), in this case, given the limitation of time and access to people, more positive than negative factors were present. The participants had more time to think and construct a response, therefore giving more valid responses than spontaneous ones.
Furthermore there is also a reduction of psychological pressure for nervous participants (Bamton and Cowton (2002). A sample of the interview topics is provided in Appendix B, at the end of this paper.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
A. Results of the questionnaire In terms of opinions about teaching, the majority of teachers considered that their student’s evaluation of them was very important (85.71%). Moreover, the majority of EFL teachers agreed that teachers’ needs were as important as those of their student (71.42%). As regards their working circumstances, English teachers showed satisfaction in terms of their relationship with their boss (71.42%) and colleagues (85.71% ) and also said that they had some say in how to do their job (57.14%).
However, EFL teachers said that they lacked sufficient opportunity for staff development. In comnnection with issues related to stress, 85.71% EFL teachers agreed that they found it stressful to teach poorly motivated students. They also agreed that the level of their responsibility as a teacher had increased. In addition, they agreed that they found complaints against them by students stressful (42.85% of EFL teachers). EFL teachers disagreed with the sentence that “they kept their work related problems to themselves” (42.85%).
Moreover, 57.14% EFL teachers believed that atmosphere among colleagues was too competitive. They also felt stressed when they could not make students understand a point (57.14%). In addition, they believed that Communicative Language Teaching puts more responsibility on teachers (71.42%) and more unhappy about extra activities related to their work (42.85%). In term of satisfaction with work load, here too, they were satisfied (57.14%).
B. Results of the Interviews
Of the 7 respondents, 3 teachers said that they considered English teaching to be a generally stressful job. 2 teachers said that to some extent it was stressful, and that this depended on certain conditions. 2 further teachers claimed that English teaching itself was not stressful, despite the fact that they might sometimes experience stressful situations.
Within the classroom, for most EFL teachers, low motivation and disciplinary issues were the main source of stress, and other issues consisted of teachers’ own lack of confidence, lack of familiarity with materials and lack of time.
With regard to issues occurring outside the classroom, most non-native teachers showed concern over their parents’ involvement in the teaching process and students studying for the purpose of examination. Some others also complained about work load. Here are some of teachers’ comments when asked what caused them most stress inside and outside the classroom:
(Disciplinary):
If students are always noisy in the class, it would be great stress to me. I couldn't teach smoothly. I will ask students to follow the rules during classes to make teaching easier.
(Lack of confidence):
I sometimes thought thatmy English speaking is not good enough to talk to foreign teachers who also work there. And that may influence me, making me unconfident, to talk to young learners.
(Material, time, students correcting teacher): I always feel stressed if the material is not familiar to me such as new texts or when it is difficult to explain and I don’t have enough time to prepare it…or when students’ faces show they are confused about what I’m talking or students correct my mistakes then, I'm stressed.
(Studying for the purpose of exam):
In Indonesia, all teachers have the same stress of the “grade" problem. Because, Parents they take "grade" to be "if you are a good teacher or not.
(Parent’s expectation): Parents who criticize my objectives when their child received a low mark from my subject make me stressed.
(Work-load): I need to do some administrative work………. The workload makes me stressed sometime.
(Extra work related activities): There are many extra activities in school. We'll invite students' parents to come to our school and join the activities. Teachers have to face many parents at the same time. For me, it is quite a big pressure!
Moreover, of the 7 respondents, only 2 teachers claimed that they had a choice of teaching materials, and said that they could choosewhatever they thought was most appropriate for their teaching. However, 4 other non-native teachers asserted that they had no choice of material, and that everything was prescribed by the school or the institutes that they worked in. 2 further respondents noted that they had partial choice of materials, since they were allowed to choose from a certain collection provided by their school or their institution. 4 of these teachers stated that they felt stress caused by a lack of free choice of material.
All teachers also stated that they could choose their teaching methodology, and did not state any experience of stress related to this. One teacher, however, commented that despite having the choice of teaching method, they thought that methods like communicative teaching required more language ability from the teacher, and this too could sometimes cause stress.
B. Discussion
The results of the study suggest that some of the major sources of stress for teachers of EFL were similar to those mentioned in the literature for other groups of teachers, namely issues such as student’s low motivation, lack of sufficient time, students’ misbehaviour, salary, unsupportive parents and competitive atmosphere among colleagues.
However there were some further sources of stress, which, as anticipated, were more specific to unexperience EFL teacher. It is noteworthy that teachers in their early years of teaching experience are also more vulnerable to stress if the working conditions are poor.
Furthermore, there were fewer symptoms of stress associated with working conditions among EFL teachers in this study. Generally speaking, it can be said that the working conditions of teachers are mostly influenced by their cultural and economical status in the context within which they teach.
Kennedy (1999), for instance, describes teachers’ situation in China (as a context where some of the participants of this study have also come from) as unsatisfying. He comments that the changes to language teaching have brought about a more challenging role for teachers, and since teachers are not in a socially desirable status, and
are also poorly paid, the new conditions have served to create a ‘depressed profession with poor motivation’.
However, it should be noted that stress concerning perceived language ability does not mean that they do not have enough language proficiency, as mentioned earlier; rather, it is related to their beliefs and confidence about their language ability As Horwitz (1996) remarks, most EFL or non-native teachers have adequate language ability to perform their task, yet they often lack confidence in their language ability. As the results of this study also show, the majority of teachers (57.14%%) said that they felt that they did not have enough knowledge of English. This is a very important statement from teachers who constitute a considerable proportion of EFL teachers and who have a very important responsibility before them.
Moreover, according to the results, it seems that the majority of these sources of stress that were limited to EFL teachers, such as perceived stress over student’s misunderstanding of English, and student’s asking questions of teachers can also be said to be rooted in teachers’ insecurity or stress over their own language ability. Therefore, if teachers worry about their language ability in the class, any questions raised by students can be considered a potential threat to the teacher’s self image and a challenge to their language ability.
Moreover, some teachers may seek to relate students’ misunderstanding of English to their own language ability, and may feel that because they are not able to explain a particular item well in English, this may impede their students’ understanding.
According to the findings of the study, whereas more than a half of teachers said that they felt that communicative language teaching placed more responsibility on teachers.It may be stated that teachers’ less positive approach to an approach such as communicative teaching could also be linked with their perception of their language ability, since communicative language teaching also requires teachers to be able to provide spontaneous answers where necessary, and such situations can create stress for those teachers who do not feel sufficiently confident about their own language ability.
CONCLUSION
The findings of this study show that for EFL teachers in this study, it is generally the case that the major sources of stress were those related to issues outside the classroom; yet in each teacher, the trend was different. Generally, it can be concluded that those areas of stress that could be linked to the issue of being non-native, and more importantly, to their view of language ability.
However it should once again be noted that being non-native is only one of the several possible sources of stress; Yet, it is perhaps one of the most distinguishing one since nowadays, there are more non-native than native teachers (Horwitz, 1996), teaching English worldwide and this highlights the importance of carrying further research to examine the influence of L1 on EFL teacher stress and to develop plans to reduce and control such stress. According to the results of this study, those EFL teachers who showed the most concerns were mainly in their early years of experience. This can also highlight the important role that pre-service teacher training courses can play in identifying and addressing the issue of stress, and also in preparing special programs to focus on those areas that are more exclusive to EFL teachers.
Exclusive language classes can, for instance, be held for pre-service teachers and special counseling and support can further be given to non-native teachers of English to address those areas that are of more concern to them. They can, for example, discuss what teachers could do when their students ask them something that they do not know, or when they face unpredictable situations. More importantly, EFL teachers can be helped to become more aware of what skills other than mere language knowledge they need to have in order to be more effective teachers.
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