The Effect of Student Off-Task Behaviors on High School English Language Teachers Burnout

The main purpose of the study is to identify particular student misbehaviors in English language courses in high schools that lead to English language teachers’ bournout. The data were collected through teacher interview and a questionnaire. The participants involved 12 teachers of English language in total who work at two different high schools. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase of the study, an open-ended interview was conducted with 4 teachers from the first high school. A content analysis was carried out in order to find out the misbehaviors teachers mentioned during the interviews. In the second phase of the study, a questionnaire including 12 misbehaviors that were mentioned by the first group of teachers was administered to 8 teachers from the second high school. These teachers were asked to rate the frequency of their burnout based on these misbehaviors. The correlational results revealed 9 specific misbehaviors that cause English language high school teachers feel burnout. The results indicated that certain misbehaviors in the classroom make high school English language teachers feel overwhelmed. It was concluded that particular student misbehaviors are common in English classes in high schools, and these misbehaviors can cause English language teachers lose their motivation.