A Study Of Professional Burnout Of High School English Teachers In Shanxi Province

With the increasing attention to education, teachers are compelled to take more responsibilities as well as the pressure. As a result, more and more teachers have professional burnout while they have to create a favorable learning environment for the students. Teacher burnout is a problem that cannot be ignored. It not only wears out considerable strengths and intellect of the teachers but also threatens the quality of education and the interactive relationship of the teachers. Many researchers do devote themselves to studying the negative impacts of teacher burnout. Based on the existing literature of teacher burnout, this study attempts to investigate the status quo of the teacher burnout phenomenon in high schools in Shanxi Province.Using a combination method of documents, questionnaire and interview, this study used the internationally accepted questionnaire of teacher’s burnout which called MBI-ES(Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey) to collect the data about the causes of high school English teachers’ burnout in Shanxi. The sample of this study was 60 English teachers from eight different ordinary senior high schools. Their age ranges from 30 to more than 50. They have different teaching experience.After analyzing the research data, the findings of this study are that English teachers at Shanxi Province had a relative high burnout ratio. Firstly, senior high school English teachers in Shanxi Province show a high level of burnout in the dimension of emotional exhaustion. Secondly, the English teachers of high schools in Shanxi Province get a high level of burnout in the dimension of depersonalization. Lastly, in terms of personal accomplishment, the level of teachers’ burnout is rather high.Based on the findings above, this study further proposed some solutions and recommendations to resolve the burnout:1) To make teachers do proper work and have a healthier lifestyle; 2) Improve communication with others and promote interpersonal relationship; 3) Improve teachers’ status both in society and economy; 4) To enhance their professional development. This study expects that these methods will not only create an appealing working environment for the teachers’ health, but also will make the teaching more effective in such environment.