The Relationships Between High-school EFL Teachers’ Emotions And Teaching Styles

Teaching is an emotionally demanding profession,and emotion is at the heart of teaching.According to the General Senior High School English Curriculum Standards(2017 Edition),the goal of the English curriculum is to foster virtue through education,which highlights the importance of emotion throughout English teaching.Additionally,emotion is the foundation of knowledge and skills,and thus the professional development of EFL teachers is inextricable from their emotions,as is the wellrounded development of their students.There is a strong link between emotion and teaching,and teaching styles represent teachers’ behaviors as they teach in class.Therefore,in the context of education reforms,the complex emotions of EFL teachers and the relationships between emotions and teaching styles deserve attention.However,only a few studies on teachers’ comprehensive emotions are conducted in English education both at home and abroad,and studies that explore the relationship between teacher emotions and teaching styles are very limited.A total of 252 high-school English teachers from Chongqing,Sichuan,Yunnan,Henan,Guizhou,and Guangdong participate in this study.The purpose of this study is to explore the following three questions using the methods of questionnaire survey and interview:(1)What is the current situation of high-school English teachers’ emotions while teaching?(2)What is the current situation of high-school English teachers’ teaching styles?(3)What are the relationships between high-school English teachers’ emotions and teaching styles?Results of this study indicate that:(1)High-school EFL teachers experience both positive emotions and negative emotions during teaching,with joy being the most frequent.However,their levels of negative emotions still remain high,notably anger,and schools and society have neglected their emotions for long periods.Furthermore,significant differences across age,major,teaching grade,and teaching time are found in teachers’ emotions.(2)High-school EFL teachers recognize emotional cultivation style and student-centered style the most,and strict style the least.Nearly half of them adopt teacher-centered style in class.In addition,significant differences across gender,teaching time,and professional title are found in four teaching styles.(3)High-school EFL teachers’ teaching styles have effects on their emotions.Emotional cultivation style is a positive predictor of positive emotions(love and joy).Conversely,strict style is a negative predictor of positive emotions(love and joy)and a positive predictor of negative emotions(sadness,anger and fear).Student-centered style negatively predicts sadness.Moreover,EFL teachers’ emotions have effects on teaching styles.Love positively predicts emotional cultivation style and student-centered style,while negatively predicts strict style.Conversely,EFL teachers’ sadness is a positive predictor of strict style.This study enriches the research on teacher emotions in L2 teaching and emotionteaching relationships,and also provides relevant suggestions on how to improve the positive emotions of EFL teachers to promote the effective implementation of English curriculum reform from the aspects of teachers themselves,school,and society.