Background: This study aimed to investigate English teachers' self-efficacy for student engagement, classroom management, instructional strategies and literacy instruction, as well as to determine whether teacher stress and job satisfaction may affect their occupational health (in terms of self-efficacy). In addition, this is one of the first studies to examine the differences in self-efficacy among pre-service, novice and experienced in-service teachers in a Chinese society, where English is positioned as a foreign language.

Participants and procedure: 271 English teachers (90 pre-service, 181 in-service) with mean teaching experience of 5.57 months for per-service and 98.51 months for in-service participated in this quantitative research study. As the targets could not be approached randomly, the English teachers were approached individually though referral sampling, informing them of the purpose of the study and obtaining their consent.

Results: It was found that both pre-service and novice in-service teachers possess the lowest self-efficacy. Moreover, teachers' stress from the classroom predicted their self-efficacy for student engagement and classroom management negatively. On the other hand, teachers' job satisfaction predicts their self-efficacy for student engagement, instructional strategies and literacy instruction positively.

Conclusions: Implications (based on the findings) are discussed in order to provide insights for schools and education departments to strengthen the teachers' capability of teaching and their occupational health.