Unpeeling the Onion: On the Relationship among Iranian EFL Teachers’ Home-culture Attachment and Its Underlying Components with Their Emotional Intelligence

“An understanding of language as ‘open, dynamic, energetic, constantly evolving and personal’ encompasses the rich complexities of communication” (Shohamy, 2007, p.5). This expanded view of language makes educational experience more engaging for both teachers and students. The connection between language and culture has always been a concern of L2 teachers and educators. Knowing about the important role of culture as well as psychological aspects of language can give us a broader view of language teaching and learning. Thus, in order to obtain a better understanding of different aspects of language teaching, the present study aims to investigate the possible relationship among Iranian EFL teachers’ home-culture attachment and its underlying components, with their emotional intelligence. To this aim, two questionnaires were distributed among 80 EFL teachers, both men and women who taught at different levels in state schools in Birjand, Kermanshah and Zabol. Data gathered from two questionnaires namely: Home culture Attachment/dependency and Bar-On EI test were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multiple regressions. Finally, results of the study revealed that there is no significant relationship between Iranian EFL teachers’ home culture attachment and its underlying components, with their emotional intelligence. The most important result of this study is bringing about awareness for EFL teachers, EFL syllabus designers, teacher educators and policy makers about the important factors in cultural attachment or detachment of Iranian EFL teachers in Iran that consequently affect their teaching and transfer of cultural values into their students.