Exploration between Job Stress and Coping Styles of College English Teachers

沈文娟 付强

Abstract：This article intends to explore the relation between Job Stress and Coping Style of College English Teachers from the viewpoint of the background and significance of the study.

Key words：Job Stress；Coping Stress；background；Significance

1. Background of the Study

The concept of job stress began to draw wide attention from foreign scholars in the 1950s and 1960s （Ma， 2009）. The researches of teachers job stress are based on previous studies of job stress， and scholars gradually paid their attentions to studies of teachers job stress in the latter 1970s. What is more， the domestic relevant researches about teachers job stress began in the 1990s， much later than the western scholars.

Among those fruitful studies home and abroad， there are many research topics concerning teachers job stress， including social factors， school factors and individual factors. In the perspective of individual factors， this paper tries to explore the relationship between job stress and coping styles of college English teachers.

2. Significance of the Study

If individuals suffer from job stress for long time， he might misbehave in his daily life or in his work. He would be easily lost in negative emotions including rage， fury， melancholy， anxiety and frustration as well as the symptom of faded concentration. It is to no exception of teachers. If teachers are exposed under heavy burden of teaching and scientific research for long time with no effective alleviating means， some little sparkles would even lead to teachers lose of temper. Specifically speaking， for those teachers who are under heavy pressure for long time， when their physical and psychological conditions cannot meet the surrounding requirements， the outbreaking job stress would lead to the dysfunctions of their physical and psychological healths， thus the whole teaching quality would deteriorate （Zhou， 2012）.

As to the present situations of teachers job stress， many scholars and institutions home and abroad have made similar research results that there exists slightly high job stress among teachers. There are the reports that the job of teacher is regarded as the occupation with the heaviest burden （Johnson， 2006）； job stress of professors is only next to those of the police （Iqbel， 2011） and that job stress already became the main problems of administers and college English teacher （Tony， 2011）.

In 2005， Renmin University of China together with Sino Network conducted the survey about Chinese teachers job stress and psychological health， and found in 8609 effective questionnaires that 82.2% teachers endured heavy job stress， among which 37.4% teachers considered job stress extremely serious， and 47.6% teachers held slightly heavy job stress （Zhang， 2009）. Besides， some domestic study also shows that 80% college English teachers in Guangzhou hold heavy job stress （Zhou， 2012）； In addition， Lu Changfang （2013） collected 555 effective questionnaires from two colleges in QQHR and found that the subjects suffered from slightly high job stress.

Therefore， it is very essential to explore effective ways to alleviate job stress.

As to the significance of this paper， besides the damages and present situations of job stress， the other reasons would be as follows：

First， in terms of the relevant study period， domestic researches about relation between job stress and coping styles began a little late， and the existing researches are not too many. However， it is assumptive that coping style plays very effective role in alleviating job stress. Without proper coping style， the psychological damage ratio of teachers would be two times as much as average groups （Zhang， Zhang & Yang， 2009）. Therefore， the exploration of the above topic is of great significance.

Second， in terms of research subjects， most previous relevant researches focus on primary and middle school teachers， and few would concentrate on college teachers， let alone the college English teachers. In fact， college English teachers play very important role in college education. For instance， the passing rate of CET4 and CET6 should largely depend on their efforts. Besides， college English teachers are very large group because nearly every college has established English departments. Therefore， the study for college English teachers would also be of great significance.

Third， in terms of research methods， most previous studies adopt quantitative researches. It is few that quantitative means and qualitative means are combined. Hence， the combination of the two kinds of research means in the study is of significance to some degree.

【參考文献】

[1] 马振耀. 高校教师工作压力差异分析[J]. 人力资源，绩效管理， 2009：89-91.

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[3] 周方方. 试论当前形势下高校教师工作压力与缓解途径[J]. 教育理论研究， 2012：205-206，282.

【作者简介】

沈文娟（1986—），女，四川广安人，硕士研究生学历，广东科学技术职业学院助教，主要研究方向：外国语言学及应用语言学。

付强（1983—），男，湖北仙桃人，硕士研究生学历，广东科学技术职业学院讲师，主要研究方向：外国语言学及应用语言学。