【正文】 ............................................................... 6 V. Results and Discussion .................................................................................................................. 7 Review of Current Burnout Situation ..................................................................................... 7 Main causes of Secondary School English teachers’ burnout................................................. 7 VI. Suggestions ................................................................................................................................... 9 Individual Efforts .................................................................................................................... 9 Organizational Support ........................................................................................................... 9 Social Support ....................................................................................................................... 10 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................... 12 Appendix A ....................................................................................................................................... 14 Appendix B ....................................................................................................................................... 18 初中英語教師職業(yè)倦怠現(xiàn)狀調(diào)查與對策研究 1 I. Introduction In modern society, English teachers’ profession is characterized by plexity and creativeness. Especially in our country, examorientededucationbased teaching model still has its place at middle schools. As a result, English teachers regard students’ scores as the most important factor, which imposes heavy burden on them. Teachers have to play several roles at the same time. If they cannot do it well, they are more likely to have roleconflict. Teaching job satisfaction, role conflict, role ambiguity and working environmental satisfaction are four important predictive variables to burnout. There is a negative correlation between job performance and role conflict. It directly affects the development of teachers and their teaching. Based on the above facts, we learn that now teachers are facing a great deal of pressure in their teaching career and some teachers have burnout to varying degrees. It is important to understand the situation of English teachers’ burnout. However, at present the empirical studies on the current situation of teachers’ burnout are few. This study tries to investigate the current situation of English teachers’ burnout at middle schools, analyze its causes and provide some referential suggestions to prehend this phenomenon. Based on the above statements about teachers’ pressure, it is not difficult to find out that burnout has a negative influence on English teachers’ work and life at middle schools. And it also brings about heavy burden on them. Therefore, what is highly necessary to do is to understand the current situation of English teachers’ burnout, analyze its causes and provide some suggestions for improvement. The purpose of this study is to figure out whether English teachers at middle schools suffer burnout or not, investigate the current situation of these teachers’ burnout, and find out its causes and major features. The study’s theoretical significance lies in its empirical enrichment of the theoretical basis about teachers’ burnout. Also, it is hoped that the study could help teachers find out the causes of burnout. At the same time, the suggestions made could be useful for teachers to relieve burnout and improve their professional abilities. II. Literature Review Concepts of Burnout Freudenberger(1974:12) first coined the term to describe persons in helping professions who “wear out”. Cherniss (1980), and Schaufeli, et al. (1993) described burnout as the professionals’ 初中英語教師職業(yè)倦怠現(xiàn)狀調(diào)查與對策研究 2 inability to develop a sense of petence, effectiveness, selfefficacy, and existential significance. Freudenberger (1977:12) identified the phenomenon of burnout as “cynicism, negativism, inflexibility, and rigidity of thinking, unhappiness, boredom, psychosomatic symptoms, and a condition in which the helping wears out in their pursuit of impossible goals”. Freudenberger and Richelson’s followup research (1980:12) sympathetically articulated that “whenever expectations were accidentally diverse from reality and the person obstinately persisted in trying to fulfill the expectations, trouble was inevitable.” Subsequently, friction builds deep inside。 the unavoidable consequences of strain and anxiety are a depletion of the individual’s resources, and attrition of vitality and energy, and a malfunction of role and position. Other researchers (Maslach amp。 Jackson, 1986。 Schaufeli et al., 1993) concluded that burnout is a loss of idealism and enthusiasm about work or about a role and is “a gradual process of disillusionment” (Schaufeli et al., 1993:35). This fashionable and threatening term of burnout has bee socially, mentally, and psychologically acceptable for describing malfunctioned anizational behavior. It is a plague in emotionally charged helping professions and peoplework that offer overload individual capability and provide high environmental stressors (Gold, 1988。 Greenberger, 1980。 Schaufeli et al., 1993). This personal dysfunction occurs basically because the interaction in the helping professions is often focused on current problems and chorus of plaints that invariably involve personal feelings of anger, fear, frustration, disappointment, and chronic tension, without possible feedback (Cherniss, 1980。 Maslach amp。 Jackson, 1986). Definition of Teachers’ Burnout The relationship between teacher burnout and job burnout i