The Association of Experienced in-service EFL teachers’ immunity with engagement, emotions, and autonomy Mostafa Azari Noughabi 1 & Seyed Mohammad Reza Amirian 1 & Seyyed Mohammad Reza Adel 1 & Gholamreza Zareian 1 Accepted: 10 September 2020 /Published online: 17 September 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract The construct of language teacher immunity has recently been introduced as a robust protective armor allowing language teachers to take on challenges within classroom context. However, due to the novelty of the concept, scant research attention has been given to the predictors of language teacher immunity, especially in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the association between autonomy, emotions, engagement, and immunity of experienced in-service EFL teachers (N = 390) in the Iranian context. After collecting data through four electronic questionnaires, standard multiple regression analysis was performed. The results indicated that autonomy, emotions, and engagement could be significant predicators of language teacher immunity. More specifically, the findings suggested that teacher autonomy had the strongest explanatory power in predicting experienced in-service EFL teachers’ immunity. In addition, regarding the inextricable connec- tion between EFL teachers’ immunity, autonomy, engagement, and emotions, the centrality of language teacher immunity was underscored. These findings contribute to the field of teacher education by depicting the areas on which educators should focus to develop EFL teachers’ immunity. The findings imply that providing experienced EFL teachers with opportunities to exercise autonomy, demonstrate commitment, and regulate emotions through teacher education courses can be helpful to facilitate their productive immunity development. Finally, suggestions for future research are offered. Keywords Teacher immunity . Teacher autonomy . Teacher engagement . Teacher emotions . Experienced in-service EFL teachers Introduction Language teacher immunity, introduced by Hiver and Dörnyei ( 2017), has been conceptualized as “a robust armoring system that emerges in response to high-intensity threats and allows teachers to maintain professional equilibri- um and instructional effectiveness” (Hiver 2017, 669). As voiced by Hiver and Dörnyei (2017, 407), as teacher immu- nity “bridges individual concerns with wider contextual con- siderations, this concept is a central factor at the heart of some of the key concerns in the language teaching profession”. Besides, teachers’ emotional status, motivational level, and instructional efficacy hinge upon the development of language teacher immunity (Hiver 2016). According to Hiver and Dörnyei (2017), the maintenance of professional equilibrium requires L2 teachers to have some form of immunity. In effect, Hiver and Dörnyei (2017) believed that language teacher im- munity could act as a double-edged sword. Whereas produc- tive teacher immunity can motivate teachers to welcome new opportunities for change (Hiver and Dörnyei 2017), maladap- tive immunity prohibits teachers from innovation in instruc- tional practices and classroom management which may lead them to burnout and attrition (Rahimpour et al. 2020). Teacher attrition has been considered as a serious challenge for educational systems worldwide (Long et al. 2012). Not only are novice teachers likely to abandon the profession (Schaefer et al. 2020), but also are experienced teachers prone to the risk of attrition (Bennet et al. 2013). According to Eros (2011), experienced teachers are those teachers who remain in the profession and in the context of classroom beyond the initial years of induction they have experienced. In effect, since experienced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers are not exempt from the challenges which early ca- reer EFL teachers may experience in the initial years they commence the profession, it can be promising to explore what * Seyed Mohammad Reza Amirian sm.amirian@hsu.ac.ir 1 English Language and Literature Department, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran Current Psychology (2022) 41:5562–5571 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01066-8 Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.