A Study On The Emotional Labor Of New High School English Teachers

Emotional labour refers to individuals managing to regulate their own emotions in the course of their work and expressing the emotions required by the organisation.Teaching is a type of emotional practice that involves interaction between teachers and students,and teachers of English are often required to engage in more interaction with students because of the uniqueness of the language,and therefore more emotional work is necessary.Teachers’ emotional work can have an impact on their own development,their students’ learning and the teaching process.However,new high school English teachers,including the author,are often unable to regulate their emotions effectively and reasonably due to their changing identities and lack of experience,so it is important to focus on the emotional work of new high school English teachers as well as their development.The research questions in this study are as follows: firstly,what is the current status of new high school English teachers’ outward expression of emotional labour in China? Secondly,What is the current state of implicit regulation of the emotional labour of new high school English teachers in China? Thirdly,what are the emotional rules that affect the emotional labour of new high school English teachers?This study is divided into two parts.The author takes several new high school English teachers in Xiangyang as the research subjects,and firstly,uses classroom observations and post-class interviews to study the current situation of the new high school English teachers’ externally explicit emotional labour.The results show that:the current situation of new high school English teachers’ externally explicit emotional labour can be divided into four types,the first type is emotional labour that conforms to emotional rules and inner feelings;the second type is emotional labour that conforms to emotional rules but not inner feelings;The third type is emotional labour that does not conform to emotional rules but conforms to inner feelings;and the fourth type is emotional labour that does not conform to emotional rules nor inner feelings.Secondly,questionnaires and in-depth interviews were used to study new high school English teachers’ implicit emotion regulation styles.The results showed that new high school English teachers used superficial behavioural strategies,natural expression strategies and deep expression strategies to regulate their own emotional labour.The frequency of use of each of these strategies,in descending order,was superficial strategies,natural expression strategies,and deep expression strategies.Through the study of new high school English teachers’ emotional labour,it was found that the emotional rules affecting new high school English teachers’ emotional labour were: obeying authority,completing teaching tasks,maintaining relationships,caring for students,and building prestige.To improve the emotional labour of new high school English teachers,the author proposes the following improvement strategies: firstly,to improve the emotional intelligence of new high school English teachers;secondly,to improve the professional identity of new high school English teachers;thirdly,to improve the campus environment around new high school English teachers;and fourthly,to develop emotional rules for new high school English teachers.