Uncovering English as a foreign language teacher resilience: a structural equation modeling approach

Abstract While teacher resilience has gained wide currency in the general education field, empirical research on language teacher resilience is still insufficient, especially with regard to the exploration of its inner structure. Against this backdrop, this study utilized a quantitative approach to investigate the structure of English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher resilience. An adapted Chinese version of the Multidimensional Teachers’ Resilience Scale (MTRS) was completed by 539 Chinese junior high school EFL teachers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses provided an acceptable fit for the 13-item MTRS and identified a tri-factorial structure of teacher resilience concerning professional competence, sociability, and grit. Based on these findings, the paper offers some implications for developing studies on language teacher resilience in the future.