Fostering spiritual intelligence and a concomitant development of WTC in EFL learners

Abstract

Spiritual intelligence involves a search to find and create meaning based on a deep understanding of existential tenets and the ability to reach higher meanings and values. Despite the growing interest among scholars to study the development of this construct and its impact on one's life, it has remained an under‐researched area of inquiry, particularly in the foreign language context. This study aimed to address this gap. The sample consisted of 47 students with the age range of 15–19 years old from a language institute, who were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group underwent a spiritual intervention over eight weeks whereas the control group received the typical instruction of the institute. Both groups completed King's spiritual intelligence inventory and Peng and Woodrow's WTC scale. Findings point to the significant effect of the intervention on improving spiritual intelligence from pretest to posttest. Also, compared to the control group, the experimental group gained significantly higher grades in WTC on the posttest. It is suggested that spiritual intelligence be incorporated into pedagogical practices to enhance learners' willingness to communicate, thereby improving their oral performance.