Trait Emotional Intelligence and Classroom Emotions: A Positive Psychology Investigation and Intervention Among Chinese EFL Learners

Abstract

The link between emotional intelligence (EI) and negative emotions, especially anxiety, has been investigated in different educational contexts including second/foreign language (L2) learning contexts. However, the link between EI and positive emotions remains underexplored, despite the growing interest of second language acquisition (SLA) researchers in positive emotions, motivated by the Positive Psychology (PP) movement. Grounded on PP theories, a correlational and experimental investigation was conducted on EI and two typical L2 classroom emotions, namely Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) and Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA). For the correlational study, questionnaires were administered to 1,718 English learners from three high schools in China. Statistical results showed medium correlations among students’ EI, FLE, and FLA. In the intervention study, a pre-test, treatment and post-test design was adopted. A six-week PP-based EI intervention (“ARGUER” training model in class and the “three activities” of PP in diary) was conducted in the experiment class of 56 students, while not in the control class of 52 students. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five students in the experimental class and their English teacher. ANCOVA test results and qualitative findings indicated that the EI intervention was effective in improving EI, boosting more positive classroom emotions and alleviating negative classroom emotions. The findings in both the correlational and intervention studies are discussed in combination with previous studies. We also further address their theoretical and practical implications for L2 education.

How different are the relations between enjoyment, anxiety, attitudes/motivation and course marks in pupils’ Italian and English as foreign languages?

“…This result makes sense as having positive attitudes towards a FL, combined with a strong motivation to master the language really well, provides a firm basis on which a more fleeting emotion such as FLE can emerge during specific activities in the classroom (Gardner, 1985). FLCA was negatively linked with FLE, as was found in previous research (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014Li, 2020;Li & Xu, 2019;Resnik & Dewaele, 2020), and with attitudes/ motivation. This fits with the pattern uncovered in MacIntyre et al (2019), where negative emotions were found to be negatively linked with positively oriented attitudes/motivation dimensions and where strong positive relationships emerged between positive emotions and positively oriented attitudes/motivation towards the FL.…”

“…There are probably a number of mediating factors that were not included in the current research design (cf. Li, 2020;Li & Xu, 2019).…”

“…Similarly, stronger motivation and more positive attitudes/motivation for one language were linked to more positive values for the other language. It is possible that some psychological variable like Trait Emotional Intelligence (Li, 2020;Li & Xu, 2019) or Cultural Empathy or a socio-psychological variable like international posture (Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide & Shimizu, 2004;Zheng et al, 2019) may play a role in the background. It is unclear why levels of FLCA were not connected in the Italian and English classes, especially considering the strong connection between FLCA and the personality trait Neuroticism in previous research .…”

Post-encoding positive emotion impairs associative memory for English vocabulary

“…It is apparent that a good memory for vocabulary is a prerequisite for mastery of English because "the heart of language comprehension and use is the lexicon" [68]. The current study shows that watching a laughter-provoking video clip after English vocabulary learning reduced associative memory for English words, suggesting that English teachers should be cautious in drawing on positive emotion intervention as teaching strategy [e.g., humor in L2 teaching in the study of [69][70][71] in classroom practices. Specifically, after the learning of English vocabulary, it may behove a learner to be emotionally neutral.…”

Does Emotional Intelligence Have an Impact on Linguistic Competences? A Primary Education Study

“…In fact, implementation of programs that target emotional intelligence, and especially the adaptability and interpersonal factors of it, should become a priority in schools to improve not only the learning processes of their students, but also their present and future well-being. Many studies have shown the effectiveness of EI school interventions in improving a student's EI, either when learning a second language [72] or in the regular school setting [73]. These interventions boost more positive classroom emotions and alleviate negative ones, facilitating the learning process of the students.…”