Investigating the Interplay between Iranian EFL Learners’ Emotional Intelligence, Listening Comprehension, and Language Achievement (Research Paper)

The present study aimed to determine the relationships between Iranian male and female EFL learners’ emotional intelligence (EI), listening comprehension, and language achievement. Moreover, it sought to determine the possible differences between these learners in terms of their listening comprehension, language achievement, and EI. Some 400 intermediate-level English learners were selected (i.e., 200 male 200 female) from among 753 English learners of a private language institute in Rasht (Iran) based on their performances on a proficiency test. Second, the researchers administered the EI questionnaire (Bar-On, 1997), listening comprehension test (Richards Trew, 2011), and achievement test of the study to the participants. Finally, they analyzed the obtained data with the help of the Pearson product-moment correlation test and independent-samples t-test. The researchers used SPSS software to perform the data analysis. Based on the results, there were significant positive correlations between EI, listening comprehension, and language achievement. Moreover, the female learners surpassed the male learners in terms of EI and language achievement. Lastly, no significant difference was found between the male and female learners’ listening comprehension. The results of the study may provide EFL teacher educators, syllabus designers, and teachers with guiding principles regarding the various learner factors in foreign language contexts.