A Study of Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Writing Ability

Emotional Intelligence (EI) theory has stirred up interest of researchers and policy makers. As opposed to mere reliance on Intelligent Quotient (IQ) as contributing to success in education, proponents of EI theory emphasize its fundamental role in different aspects of academic achievement. Therefore, the present study aimed to explore the relationship between EI and writing ability of Iranian EFL university students. To achieve this goal, a group of forty EFL students took part in this study. Twenty of the participants were female and twenty male, and their age range was 19-26. The participants were given Bar-On’s EQ questionnaire as well as a writing test. Bar-On’s questionnaire consisted of 90 items which were in Likert scale format and the writing test was given as the final exam of students’ Advanced Essay Writing course at the university. Students were asked to write about one of the 2 topics they were given and their writing was evaluated by two raters. Inter-rater reliability of 0.8 was achieved. The results indicated no significant relationship between female and male students’ EI and their writing score. Among sub-skills of EI, impulse control correlated negatively with males’ writing ability. Detailed findings and implications are also discussed.