Unveiling the interplay between EFL teachers’ cognitive flexibility, emotion regulation, and foreign language teaching anxiety: a structural equation modeling approach

The current study explored the association between EFL instructors’ cognitive flexibility (CF) and foreign language teaching anxiety (FLTA), with the mediating impact of emotion regulation strategies. In doing so, 330 participants (196 males and 134 females) voluntarily filled in a battery of scales. Results of a structural equation modeling analysis indicated that all facets of FLTA were negatively correlated with CF. Furthermore, the first component of emotion regulation, i.e., cognitive reappraisal, had a strong negative association with all facets of FLTA except time management challenges. The other component of emotion regulation, expressive suppression, exhibited significant positive correlations with all components of FLTA, except difficulties with time management. Next, we investigated how two components of emotion regulation strategies could potentially mediate the association between CF and L2 teaching anxiety. Results indicated that cognitive reappraisal mediates the relationship between CF and four sub-components of FLTA, viz., fear of negative evaluation, lack of student interest, teaching inexperience, and self-perception of language proficiency. Additionally, expressive suppression mediated the relationship between CF and the four components of FLTA. The findings are discussed in the context of educational theories, and implications are provided to enhance EFL instructors’ flexible cognition.