INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND SECOND LANGUAGE VOCABULARY ACHIEVEMENT: A CASE OF TEFL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

This study was an investigation to detect the relationship between English as a foreign language students’ emotional intelligence and their language achievement at university level. However, knowing a language is accompanied with speaking skill and the ability to communicate with it.Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to find the factors which affect EFL students’ willingness to communicate (WTC). To find the relationships between willingness to communicate and students’ emotional intelligence (EQ- i) two questionnaires were used and 130 intermediatestudents were selected randomly from 3 language institutes in Tonekabon. Their level of language proficiency was determined through administering Cambridge Language Proficiency Test (Language, PET) and results of the Person Correlation Test showed a positive relationship between EFL Learners’ WTC and four factors of the EQ-i named: Interpersonal Relationship (IP), Empathy (EM), Assertiveness (AS), and Emotional Self-Awareness (ES) and emotional intelligence. The findings of the present study revealed that there was a significant relationship between the students’ emotional intelligence and their language achievement. Girls were found to have higher EQ level than boys in this particular study. The findings of this study may serve as recommendations to instructors to modify methods which can be appropriate for students and their emotional intelligence level and also might help them select appropriate teaching materials for students with different abilities.

Keywords:

Emotional intelligence , language achievements , Interpersonal relationship , Empathy , Emotional self-awareness , Assertiveness