Immunity Change Of A Novice EFL Teacher In A Junior Vocational College:a Longitudinal Case Study

Teaching is a challenging job in which teacher attrition and burnout have been reported as serious problems,especially in novice teachers.EFL teachers are not exempt from psychological challenges.Thus,resilient teachers are essential for teacher retention and effectiveness.Language Teacher Immunity(LTI)is a new concept illustrating a psychological defense mechanism that helps language teachers survive and thrive in their career.In China,there has long been a social prejudice against vocational education.In 2019,the newly published National Implementation Plan for Vocational Education Reform clarified the equal status of vocational and general education.However,junior vocational EFL teacher are now facing higher demands and burnout,while their ways to maintain resilient and adaptive are yet to be explored.With Language Teacher Immunity as a conceptual framework,this longitudinal case study traces the first-year experiences of a novice junior vocational college EFL teacher to investigate her language teacher immunity change,and factors influencing immunity change.Research data include 3 semi-structured interviews,11 reflective journals,29 classroom observations with after-class feedback,and everyday communications with the participant,adding up to a database with roughly 370 thousand words and 58 video recordings.Teaching plans of the two semesters,exam papers and some of the students’ assignments are also collected.The data are analyzed through coding to comprehensively depict the complex,dynamic process of language teacher immunity.Findings indicate that the junior vocational college EFL teacher’s immunity evolves in basically four stages:triggering,coping,realignment and stabilization,but also demonstrate a spiraling and non-linear process of the stages.It’s also found that factors influencing language teacher immunity involve three levels:macro level(national policies and social views),institutional level(workload,institutional support,induction and mentoring)and personal level(the teacher ’s relatedness with students,social relationships,self-reflection,etc.)Previous life experiences are also found to have fundamental influences on language teacher immunity.Finally,suggestions for stakeholders are raised to facilitate novice junior vocational EFL teacher development.