Testing a model of EFL teachers’ work engagement: the roles of teachers’ professional identity, L2 grit, and foreign language teaching enjoyment

Abstract Since teacher work engagement is argued to substantially affect education quality and learners’ performance, unveiling the factors affecting teacher engagement is of high significance. As an attempt to explore the antecedents of this construct in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers, we tested a structural model of work engagement based on teachers’ professional identity, grit, and foreign language teaching enjoyment. A sample of 476 EFL teachers in Iran was requested to complete an online survey constituting the valid scales of the four constructs. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results indicated that the model fitted the data sufficiently. The model revealed that teachers’ grit, professional identity, and foreign language teaching enjoyment were the direct correlates of work engagement. Additionally, professional identity affected work engagement indirectly via foreign language teaching enjoyment and grit. Also, foreign language teaching enjoyment influenced work engagement through the mediation of grit. We conclude our study with a discussion on the implications of the findings.