Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Emotion Regulation of EFL Learners

The objective of this article was to first examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and emotion regulation in establishing learners’ skills of regulating emotions and facilitating better psychological adjustment to cope with negative state of mind in order to promote emotional and intellectual growth in classroom. The second objective of this study was to find out whether there was a difference between emotion regulation of males and females. Participants included 84 (54 females, 30 males) Iranian university students in the age range between 17 and 35 years old. Participants were requested to fill out a demographic questionnaire for background data. Their emotional intelligences were measured by Situational Test of Emotional Management (MacCann & Roberts, 2008). Further, Gross and John’s (2003) emotion regulation questionnaire was used to measure the participants’ regulation over their emotions. The results showed that there was a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and emotion management. Nothing was found to accunt for the discrepancy between males and females in regulating their emotions. English language learners, teachers, and practitioners may benefit from the findings of this study.