VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES -----*----- ĐINH THỊ BƯỞI FACTORS AFFECTING TEACHER BURNOUT: AN EXAMPLE OF EFL UNIVERSITY TEACHERS (NHỮ NG YẾU TỐ LÀM GIÁO VIÊN CHÁN NGHỀ : MỘT VÍ DỤ VỀ CÁC GIÁO VIÊN DẠY TIẾNG ANH Ở BẬC ĐẠI HỌC) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI – 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES -----*----- ĐINH THỊ BƯỞI FACTORS AFFECTING TEACHER BURNOUT: AN EXAMPLE OF EFL UNIVERSITY TEACHERS (NHỮ NG YẾU TỐ LÀM GIÁO VIÊN CHÁN NGHỀ : MỘT VÍ DỤ VỀ CÁC GIÁO VIÊN DẠY TIẾNG ANH Ở BẬC ĐẠI HỌC) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Lê Văn Canh HANOI – 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I certify that this thesis is entirely the result of my own work. I have provided fully documented references to the work of others.
The material in this thesis has not been submitted for assessment in any other university or institution wholly and partially. Hanoi, 2014 Đinh Thị Bưởi i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people. First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Le Van Canh, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through all phases of the research.
His stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher. Second, my sincere appreciation is extended to all teachers at Faculty of Post – Graduate Studies, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, especially who taught me TESOL methodology and research methodology. Their lectures as well as their suggestions for teaching and researching inspired me to conduct this study. Third, my gratitude is expanded to all university EFL teachers of the university where I conducted this study for their enthusiastic and helpful participations in this survey.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic study. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as a Foreign Language ELT : English language teaching TESOL : Teaching English to speakers of other languages TEFL : Teaching English as a foreign language MA : Master of Arts PhD : Doctor of Philosophy MOET : Ministry of Education and Training CEFR : Common European Framework Reference iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Teacher burnout levels based on the questionnaire .3: Main factors leading the EFL teachers to burnout. 22 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Although teacher burnout has attracted scholarly interest for several decades, it was not until recently the topic caught the attention of scholars, researchers and teacher educators in the field of English language teaching (ELT). This thesis reports on a survey conducted in a university in Vietnam to explore the degree of burnout among a group of university EFL teachers.
Participants in the survey were 33 EFL teachers of the researched university. Two instruments of data collection used in this survey were questionnaires and interviews. The findings of the survey show that burnout is an issue among EFL teachers though the level was just moderately high. Factors leading to teacher burnout were low salaries, heavy workload, students, administration, collegiality, education policy, and family.
The study also provides some suggestions for preventing teacher burnout so that educational quality could be raised. v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION. ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iii LIST OF TABLES.
v TABLE OF CONTENT. vi PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the study. Aims and objectives of the study.
Significance of the study. Research questions of the study. Scope of the study. Methods of the study.
Structural organization of the thesis. 5 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definition of terminology: Teacher burnout. Teacher burnout vs.
Research on teacher burnout in general education. Research on EFL teacher burnout. Teacher burnout in Vietnam. 14 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
Context of the study. Data collection instruments. Data collection procedures. Data analysis methods.
20 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. The levels of burnout experienced by the EFL teachers. Factors leading the EFL teachers to burnout. Discussions of the findings .1 Burnout level of the EFL teachers.
Factors leading the EFL teachers to burnout. Recapitulation of major findings. Implications of the study. Limitations of the research and suggestions for future studies.
IV vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. VIII viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION In this part, the rationale of the study is presented. This is followed by the statement of the aims and objectives as well as the research questions and research methods that were used for the study. Finally, the structure of the thesis is presented.
Rationale of the study Teachers play a central role in educational innovation. Therefore, teacher motivation in teaching is of critical importance. However, work stress has been reported to lead to teacher burnout, which in turn has had negative influences on teacher motivation. Therefore, battling burnout in educational institutions is one of the most critical issues.
As with many human service occupations, teaching in the modern world is associated with significant levels of burnout. It is true that the incidence of teacher burnout has received major attention over the last twenty years (Maslach and Leiter, 1999). Teachers have to be well-prepared, capable, skillful, and have creative ideas because they always must face enormous challenges in interconnected, competitive, global society. The role of today's teachers is extremely comprehensive.
Teachers not only confront a heavy workload in teaching, but also have to cope with parental pressures, rapid changes in curricular demands, pressures from bureaucrats and administrators. The consequences of these issues are teacher burnout and burnout appears to be a main factor in teachers‟ decision to leave the teaching profession in many countries. Thus, measuring the levels of burnout and finding out factors leading teachers to burnout in the Vietnam educational context are necessary and we wish to employ preventive and restorative strategies to tackle the phenomenon early. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com In Vietnam, the problem of teacher burnout is mentioned in short newspapers and articles on the media only.
There has not been any in-deep study of the issue in specific situations. That is the reason why factors causing teacher burnout are discussed vaguely, and it is very hard to deal with the root of the issue. Many teachers, when asked about their job, said that they were bored with the job but did not know why they were. Hence, this study is carried out to the subjects of the English teachers at a university in Vietnam, with purpose of discovering at which level they fell bored, and factors leading them to burnout at the time of study.
Aims and objectives of the study The overall purpose of this study is to gain understanding of the issue of professional burnout among a group of Vietnamese EFL teachers working in one university. Specifically, the following objectives were set up for the study: a) to explore whether teacher burnout is a reality or not, and the current degrees of burnout of the teachers if this problem exists; b) to find out factors leading to burnout among the EFL teachers working in the surveyed university 3. Significance of the study The findings of this survey will inform educational administrators and teacher educators of the degree of teacher burnout and the causes of this phenomenon. The empirical evidence provided in this study is helpful in working out appropriate policies on teachers in an attempt to prevent teacher burnout thereby enhancing teacher motivation to teach, especially when the new policy on English language education is being implemented.
Research questions of the study With the above objectives, the research questions in this study are: 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. What are current levels of burnout among a group of EFL university teachers? 2. What are factors triggering burnout among these teachers? 5. Scope of the study Teacher burnout is one of the most burning issues that needs to be studied.
However, the present study only focuses on the EFL teachers in a university in Vietnam. Furthermore, the study only focuses on finding out factors leading these teachers to burnout because this may help administrators, government, and even teachers to solve this problem. Methods of the study In order to achieve the objectives mentioned above, this study is designed integrating both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The quantitative part of the study reports the results of a survey, in which the “Teacher Burnout Scale” (see Appendix A), which is designed by MacCroskey, Richmond, Wrench and Gorham (2001) was used to find out the degree of burnout among EFL teachers in the researched institution.
The qualitative part used interviews to identify factors leading to teacher burnout (see Appendix B). Structural organization of the thesis This thesis consists of three parts as follows: The first part is introduction which included rationale, objectives, significance, research questions, scope, methods and organization of the study. The second part is development that consists of three following chapters: chapter one is literature review that provides a theoretical and empirical framework for the study by reviewing the literature on teacher burnout. It commences with a review of definition of teacher burnout, proceeding to 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com examine teacher burnout and teacher demotivation.
More importantly, it researches teacher burnout in general education and with a particular focus on the key area that informs this study – EFL teacher burnout. Chapter two explains the methodology and methods that have been used for conducting the research and for analyzing the data. It includes a description of selection of the participants. It also describes the two instruments used for data collection (questionnaire and interview) and outlines how the data was analyzed.
Chapter three is findings and discussions and which presented and discussed the results of the study. The third part is conclusion which includes summary of main points raised in the study, implications of the study, a discussion of the study‟s limitations and suggestions for further research. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews the studies on teacher burnout as a means of providing a theoretical framework for the study. In particular, the chapter discusses previous educational researches on teacher burnout, especially EFL teacher burnout.
The discussion will highlight the need for a better understanding of EFL teacher burnout. To provide a clear picture for discussion of teacher burnout, the chapter commences by giving definition of teacher burnout. The discussion then proceeds to teacher burnout and teacher demotivation, followed by teacher burnout research in general education. With this backdrop, there will be a detailed examination of EFL teacher burnout and related studies.
In doing so, the discussion will identify the factors influencing teacher burnout. Definition of terminology: Teacher burnout Maslach, Leiter and Schaufeli (2008: 90) defined burnout as “a psychological syndrome in response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job". This response is manifested through three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. These dimensions are explained in general setting by Maslach et al.
(2008: 89) as follows: the first dimension has been described as wearing out, loss of energy, depletion, debilitation, and fatigue.