The problem of professional burnout in the formation of future foreign language teachers’ professional identity

Abstract

The article is devoted to the topic of professional burnout as a violation in the formation process of professional identity of students, namely of future foreign language teachers. The authors reveal the concept of professional burnout, illustrate the possibility of developing professional burnout syndrome for those having unformed or lost identity statuses, as well as in the opposite direction, the probability of losing professional identity as a result of professional burnout syndrome. The authors of the article reflect three categories of symptoms of professional burnout: affective, cognitive, motivational, as well as three main components of the phenomenon: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, reduction of personal achievements. The article describes the main factors contributing to the development of the syndrome: according to О.I. Babich and T.V. Reshetova – external and internal. Emotional burnout is considered as a result of some inconsistencies between personality and work, peculiar to people of pedagogical field of work. The authors also studied the problem of therapy of professional burnout syndrome. K. Maslach and Vodopyanova N.E. consider especially effective not those programs that are focused on working with a person and his/her difficulties, but namely, those that offer an employee either to take a vacation, take a temporary break, or replace the usual strategies of communication, behavior, organization of work, etc. with more effective ones, but programs that aimed at increasing the autonomy and self-determination of the individual, which are closely correlated with psychological health or authenticity, which also has a positive effect on the formation of professional identity. Merkulova N.N. suggests supplementing the above-mentioned tasks of the program with the formation and assimilation of theoretical knowledge about the phenomena under study, training the skills of self-reflection and self-checking of their own condition and recognition of burnout symptoms, etc.