The Relationship Between Language Teacher Immunity and Personality Type of Iranian EFL Teachers

Language teacher immunity is a novel concept in language teacher psychology that serves as a shield against the unavoidable hassles of teaching contexts. The current study aimed to fill the gap in the existing literature by employing a mixed-methods approach to find the relationship between Iranian EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers' immunity and their personality types. For the quantitative phase of the study, the data were collected through two questionnaires, teacher immunity by Hiver (2016) and the NEO-FFI-3 (NEO Five-Factor Inventory) by Costa and McCrae (2010), which were distributed among a random sample of 50 participants (19 males and 31 females) in various language institutes in Iran. For the qualitative phase of the study, an interview was conducted with eight EFL teachers through a phone call to reach in-depth information regarding teacher immunity. The findings indicated a significant positive correlation between teacher immunity facets and personality types. Teaching self-efficacy and conscientiousness was the most dominant teacher immunity facets and personality types. The current study would probably help EFL teachers know how to respond to various traumatic and detrimental situations in teaching English based on their personality and immunity types.