An Analysis of the Relationship between Teaching Concerns and Personality Traits of In-Service EFL Teachers [Article]

Abstract

This study aims at exploring the teaching concerns of a group of EFL teachers working invarious school levels in terms of different variables (gender, age, professional experience, graduated programand school level), the relationship between their concerns and personality traits, and their views on their ownteaching concerns. The research was designed in a convergent parallel design. A total of 200 EFL teachersworking in primary, secondary and university levels participated in the study, and interviews were conductedwith 18 teachers volunteering among these teachers. The results indicated that gender and the graduatedprogram type appeared not to create a significant difference. However, it was found that as the professionalexperience increased, the teaching concerns decreased and primary school EFL teachers seemed to havehigher concerns than the other groups of teachers. Correlation analysis revealed a significant relationshipbetween their teaching concerns and personality traits. Qualitative results of the study suggested relativelyhigher levels of teaching concerns than the levels obtained with the questionnaire.