An Investigation Into the Interplay Between Chinese EFL Teachers' Emotional Intelligence, Ambiguity Tolerance, and Work Engagement

Abstract

Teachers' work engagement is regarded as a critical issue in educational contexts, so the emotional factors and personality traits, and their effects on teacher engagement have drawn the attention of investigators. This study seeks to investigate the relationship between teachers' emotional intelligence, ambiguity tolerance, and work engagement. Moreover, this study tries to investigate the contribution of emotional intelligence and ambiguity tolerance to teachers' work engagement. To do so, 322 teachers (96 males and 226 females) participated in this study. Schutte's Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT), Multiple Stimulus Types Ambiguity Tolerance Scale-II (MSTAT-II), and Self-report engagement Questionnaire were used in this study. The statistical techniques used in this study are the Spearman Rho test and ANOVA. The findings showed that there are significant correlations between work engagement, emotional intelligence, and ambiguity tolerance. Comparing the predictability power, teachers' emotional intelligence (B = 0.611) proved to have a higher index compared to their index of ambiguity tolerance (B = 0.2). This study concluded that emotionally intelligent teachers and teachers with higher levels of ambiguity tolerance are more engaged in the EFL contexts. Moreover, the study has some pedagogical implications and suggestions for different teacher educators, policy-makers, and advisors. The ideas can improve their awareness of teachers' emotional intelligence, ambiguity tolerance, and work engagement in educational environments.

Bibliometric Analysis of Ambiguity Tolerance: Unearthing Its Role in Sustainable Language Education

“…This longest path, led by Kamran [51], discusses AT's role in influencing engagement in the Group 5 language learning context (see Figure 10). This longest path shows the peculiar citation network between Kamran [51] and Yang [34]. Yu et al [6] proved the essential role of AT and perseverance in facilitating learners' engagement in language learning contexts.…”

“…In academic fields, scholars and researchers had time to analyze the psychological issues of post-pandemic trauma, such as stress, intolerance, cognitive overload, and burnout [6,33]. AT is referred to as a kind of positive personality trait that plays a significant role in coping with negative psychology [6,34]. Hence, there has been a notable increase in the number of scholarly works addressing the study of ambiguity tolerance in a range of multidisciplinary fields in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

“…Yu et al [6] proved the essential role of AT and perseverance in facilitating learners' engagement in language learning contexts. The most recent publication by Yang [34] demonstrated that AT influences college teachers' stress, cognitive overload, burnout, emotional intelligence, enthusiasm, and teaching engagement. Engagement refers to individuals' time, effort, and energy put into sustainable language learning.…”

“…Engagement in the arts and relevant activities could increase AT levels and alleviate students' burnout [53]. Apart from AT, the emotional quotient (EQ) is also positively relevant to learning engagement [34]. In the adaption of AI technology, AT is empirically confirmed as an important variation in technology acceptance models (TAMs) [54].…”

Relationship between emotional intelligence and learning motivation among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A serial mediation model

“…The emotional intelligence measure was adapted from a questionnaire developed by Schutte et al (1998) , and the Chinese version of this questionnaire was validated ( Che et al, 2017 ; Yang, 2022 ). This scale contains 33 items and uses a five-point Likert scale, with 30 positively scored questions and 3 reverse scored questions.…”