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Description
Teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) is a demanding job due to the excessive workload and pressure emanating from various stakeholders such as administrators, parents, and students, potentially leading to persistent burnout. Even though much research on the overall well-being of EFL teachers has been conducted, little has particularly focused on investigating imposter syndrome experienced by them. The current study aims to explore the extent to which EFL teachers in Vietnam suffer from imposter syndrome, the possible causes of such phenomenon, the ramifications of the experience on their teaching roles, and the kinds of support EFL teachers need to overcome this mental hurdle and improve their teaching efficiency. The data collection instrument is a questionnaire with 20 Likert-scale questions taken from Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (Clance, 1985); demographic questions are also added to collect respondents’ information while open-ended questions are asked to gain more insights. Findings are expected to enrich the existing literature on the under-researched topic of imposter syndrome among EFL teachers, drawing more attention to the issue and offering related suggestions for EFL teachers’ personal and professional identity development.
Keywords: Imposter syndrome, EFL teachers, professional identity development
