An Exploration of Burnout Among EFL Students: A Study Using Person-Centered Approach

Burnout has been recognized as a major concern for individuals in different educational areas. However, little attempt has been made to explore it among English as a foreign language learners (EFL). Accordingly, the presentstudy aimed at identifying burnout profiles among Iranian EFL learners. Also, it investigated the relationship betweenEFL learners’ burnout profiles and their demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, marital status, and educationaldegree). To these ends, a sample of 100 EFL students participated in this study. Each participant filled in a biographical questionnaire and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey. First, three burnout profiles were identified using clustering methodology: the laissez faire, the well-adjusted, and the distressed. Next, a one-waymultivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with a follow-up univariate analysis (ANOVA) and post hoc Turkeycomparison tests were conducted to discover the differences among the three clusters on EFL learners’ burnoutprofiles. The results showed significant differences among all the three clusters on the EFL learners’ burnout profiles. Finally, Chi-square tests were used to identify the relationships between demographic characteristics and the EFLlearners’ burnout profiles. The results revealed that only educational degree was significantly related to the EFLlearners’ burnout cluster membership. Results from this study opened the door for practitioners and educational policy makers to develop specialized interventional programs considering EFL learners burnout profiles to improve the EFL learners’ quality of education

Keywords:

EFL students , burnout , clustering , demographic characteristics