The Main Stressors of Tertiary Level EFL Instructors Teaching Remotely Amidst Covid-19

Abstract

With the global COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, our lives, especially education, have been adversely affected. This research investigates the relationship between technostress and burnout levels of English language instructors amidst the pandemic and makes recommendations about the role of online language education in the coming years. In this study, Turkish adaptation of Maslach’s MBI-ES and Defining Teacher’s Technostress Level Scale was administered to 188 English instructors working at State and Foundation Universities in Turkey. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 10 English language instructors. The findings indicate that instructors have medium level of technostress and low level of burnout. Age and gender were found to be an important contributing factor for both technostress and burnout levels. Correlation analyses showed a relationship between subscales of burnout and technostress measures. The research findings suggest adapting the curriculum of English language teaching programs to increase the technology literacy of prospective English language teachers and prepare them for the increasing role of online language teaching in the coming years as well as providing professional development opportunities for in-service language teachers.