Korean EFL Teachers’ Emotional Labor: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The current study investigates the emotional challenges EFL teachers experience in relation to learners, parents, and the institution and the emotional labor they are performing. The impact of emotional labor and exhaustion caused by emotional labor is also analyzed. Fordata collection, we conducted a semi-structured interview with three participant teaching young learners in private institutions and a public school. The collected data were analyzedbased on Grounded Theory. The results indicate that in relation to learners, the participating EFL teachers conduct emotional labor by suppressing negative emotions when faced with alow level of student attention in class and they exaggerate positive emotions in order to encourage learners to practice speaking in English. In addition, EFL teachers regulate their emotions while communicating with their students’ parents. The conflict between institutionaldemand and teachers’ personal teaching beliefs cause emotional challenges to EFL teachers. The results also imply that it is important for EFL teachers to be equipped with knowledge on both emotional management and child development through the pre- and in-service teachertraining.