A case study of Chinese novice EFL teachers’ emotional experiences, contributing factors, and regulation strategies during their teaching journey

Language teaching is emotionally complex. Despite increased research on language teachers’ emotions, novice English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Chinese universities remain underexplored. This study employs Bronfenbrenner’s ecological perspective to examine the negative emotional experiences, contributing factors, and regulation strategies of 12 novice EFL teachers from four public universities in Hebei Province, China. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and case documents, including reflective journals, emotional diaries, and work reports. Content analysis identified three categories of negative emotions: fear, sadness, and anger. Thematic analysis revealed that factors across ecological systems contribute to these emotions. In the microsystem, key influences include the college students, the teaching competence of teachers, and the EFL teaching activities. The mesosystem encompasses professional interpersonal relationships and the challenge of balancing different microsystems. Within the exosystem, novice teacher education and training programs shape their negative emotional experiences. At the macrosystem level, Chinese social and cultural values and educational curriculum reform are influential. Finally, the chronosystem emphasises the dynamic nature of emotional experiences over time. The study found that novice EFL teachers predominantly used response-focused strategies, such as suppression, reappraisal, genuine expression, reflection, communication, and passive acceptance, over antecedent-focused strategies, such as prevention, intervention, reinterpretation, attention diversion, and segregation. This study extends the existing literature on the emotional experiences of language teachers. The findings highlight the need for tailored support mechanisms to enhance novice EFL teachers’ emotional well-being and professional development.