Teacher factors encompass the teachers’ cognitive and affective characteristics that are likely to affect their instructional efficacy. Language teacher immunity is one of the affective factors that determines the teachers’ psychological well-being in their settings. The present study strived to itemize the factors in novice and experienced EFL instructors’ teacher immunity philosophy. To this end, first, the researchers used convenience sampling for selecting 62 EFL teachers including 38 novice and 24 experienced teachers at ten prominent language institutes in Tabriz (Iran) as the participants. Second, they conducted 30-minute interviews with the participants for determining the factors that influenced their TI philosophy using a researcher-developed semi-structured interview protocol. Lastly, they used thematic analysis in order to particularize the main factors in their teacher immunity philosophy. The findings of the study indicated that while the novice teachers considered external support as the main factor in their philosophy, the experienced teachers regarded their internal strength as the decisive factor that influenced their teacher immunity philosophy. The findings may have practical implications for teacher education courses in foreign language contexts.

Introduction: Toll-like receptor (TLR) stimulation can lead to the activation of both innate and adaptive immune responses. Recently, some reports have pointed out to the role of membranous form of TLR2 in asthma pathogenesis. In this respect, this study aimed to examine serum and sputum levels of soluble form of TLR2 (sTLR2) in both patients with asthma and healthy individuals.Materials and Methods: Serum and sputum samples were obtained from asthmatic patients (n=33) and normal subjects (n=19). All the subjects were otherwise healthy. The asthmatic patients were classified into four groups according to Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA). Eosinophile count and total serum IgE were determined in peripheral blood and sputum. Also, we established a sandwich ELISA to measure the serum and sputum levels of sTLR. Results: The means of sTLR2 optical density levels in serum and sputum samples of the asthmatics were significantly lower than those obtained from the healthy controls (0.44±0.12 VS 0.72±0.15 IU/ml, P=0.003). sTLR2 optical density decreased concomitantly with the increase in the levels of asthma severity, but the differences observed were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The levels of sTLR2 decreased in serum and sputum samples obtained from asthmatic patients, as compared to the healthy individuals.