Understanding EFL Teachers’ Emotional Experience of Doing Research: A Review

Abstract

In an era when scientific research is in the spotlight, foreign language teachers have developed a variety of complex and diverse emotions towards it. Research into teachers’ professional development has long focused on rational factors. However, teacher emotions are real and emotions are at the heart of teaching and learning. Teachers’ research emotions are therefore as important as the rational elements of teacher professional development. Indeed, teacher emotions have a crucial impact on teachers’ careers and development, and teacher emotions cannot be ignored. However, little attention has been paid to research on English teachers’ emotions, and there is a lack of literature reviews to sort out the limited research on English teachers’ emotions. Such a literature review would help to understand the gaps in the current field of research on English teachers’ research on emotions and thus better guide the direction of future research. By using keywords to identify relevant studies, further screening and analysing candidate studies, and reporting and summarizing existing research findings, this study reviews the current state of research on English teachers’ research on emotional experiences and finds that research on foreign language teachers’ emotions is mainly concerned with the content of emotional experiences, emotion formation and its influencing factors. On this basis, further directions for research are indicated, including the attention paying to the processes of emotion formation and emotion adjustment strategies of foreign language teachers, the emotions of university teachers and the influence of Chinese society and culture on foreign language teachers in higher education.