An investigation into the predictive role of EFL teachers’ sense of grit and positive psychological capital in their emotional literacy

A rising body of empirical studies on diverse psycho-emotional variables related to second/foreign language (L2) education has been conducted in different educational settings. However, the literature is limited chiefly to learner-psychology variables, with attention turning to teacher psychology only recently. Three crucial constructs related to L2 teachers are grit, positive psychological capital, and emotional literacy. However, the interaction between these three has received scarce (if any) attention so far. To fill this gap, this quantitative research delved into the predicting role of teachers’ grit and positive psychological capital in their emotional literacy. To this end, the 560 EFL teachers who participated in this study completed three scales over four months. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and regression analysis revealed a positive association among EFL teachers’ grit, positive psychological capital, and emotional literacy. Moreover, the regression analysis results pinpointed that both grit and positive psychological capital could significantly predict EFL teachers’ emotional literacy. More specifically, it was found that grit and positive psychological capital could jointly predict 67% of the variance in emotional literacy. The study provides implications for EFL teachers, researchers, school managers, and teacher educators regarding the prominence of emotional factors in L2 teaching.