On the Correlation between Iranian EFL Learners’ Use of Metacognitive Listening Strategies and Their Emotional Intelligence

Abstract

The researchers in the current study were after gauging the would-be correlation between emotional intelligence (and its subcomponents), on the one hand and the use of listening metacognitive strategies by academic EFL learners on the other. The study at hand benefited from 72 female and 40 male university students from Urmia University, Urmia Azad University and Salams Azad University. The main instruments used in the study were Bar-On's emotional intelligence inventory and listening metacognitive strategies use questionnaire. Using Pearson correlation coefficient, the researchers came up with a significant amount of correlation between the use of listening metacognitive strategies and total emotional intelligence score as well as the learners' scores on the subscales of emotional intelligence (Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, adaptability, and general mood), with the mere exception of stress management. Moreover, the relationship between all the 5 subscales of emotional intelligence and the use of monitoring strategies, and the relationship between interpersonal skills and evaluating strategy were found to be significant. Keywords: emotional intelligence, listening metacognitive strategies Introducation BackgroundSecond language acquisition has been viewed as a complex cognitive process by cognitive psychologists as the learners implement some cognitive strategies during this process. As the studies show, not only do learners use cognitive strategies, but also they monitor and control their own mental processes (Pintrich, 1999), which are referred to as metacognitive strategies that are involved in learning and using language.According to Oxford (1990), "metacognitive strategies help learners manage: (1) themselves as learners, (2) the general learning process, and (3) specific learning tasks" (cited in Carter & Nunan, 2001, p.197). Simply put, "metacognition is thinking about thinking" (Flavell, 1979, p. 906). O'Malley and Chamot (1990), indicate that metacognitive strategies are "higher order executive skills that may entail planning for, monitoring or evaluating the success of a learning activity" (p.44).Compared with other courses such as mathematics, learning English and generally learning language may be more pertinent to emotional intelligence. Yet, individual differences and personality traits like emotional intelligence are at times taken to play no role in teaching and learning system and are partially ignored. Despite the profusion of studies carried out regarding the role of IQ in academic achievement, very little seems to have been done concerning the relevance of EI to the use of strategies by learners.As listening is an important medium of providing input for learners of English, finding optimum ways of teaching listening is a challenging task for EFL teachers and researchers. While research on strategies of second language learning has increased in recent years, studies on listening comprehension are so infrequent and the base for research in listening comprehension strategies is even so l...

Investigating the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Meta-Cognition among Hashemite University Students

“…Our findings are consisting with other results (Alavinia & Mollahossein, 2012) which found a positive relationship between learners' emotional intelligence and their use of meta-cognitive strategies. Sharei et al (2012) found that meta-cognition and emotional intelligence contribute significantly to the prediction of problem-solving ability.…”

The Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners’ Emotional Intelligence and Metacognitive Reading Strategies Use

“…Concerning the main research question, the results showed a moderate and positive correlation between the participants' emotional intelligence and their use of metacognitive reading strategies. This finding is in line with other similar findings in the literature (Aghasafari, 2006;Alavinia & Mollahossein, 2012;Hasanzadeh & Shahmohamadi, 2011;Majidi Dehkordi & Shirani Bidabadi, 2015;Rahmani et al, 2013;Soodmand Afshar et al, 2016;Taheri & Jadidi, 2016). Similarly, these research findings also confirmed positive relationships between EI and different aspects of L2 learning as well as the use of some learning strategies (see the details under Related Studies above).…”

“…The findings are also compatible with those of Alavinia and Mollahossein (2012), who found relationships between interpersonal skills and the three components of listening metacognitive strategies. However, they contradict their findings in that they found a significant relationship between intrapersonal skills, stress management, and the monitoring listening strategy.…”

Reflective Thinking Tendencies and Epistemological Beliefs in Terms of Learning Styles

“…There have been many studies on learning styles. The learning styles were investigated in relation to academic achievement (Snyder, 1999;Cassidy & Eachus, 2000;Arslan & Babadoğan, 2005;Ekici, 2013;Moghadam, at al., 2015), teaching styles (Bilgin & Bahar, 2008;Kaleci, 2012), learning strategies (Deryakulu, 2004;Yılmaz, 2011;Tezci & Ataseven, 2016), thinking styles (Ural & Esmer, 2017), attitudes towards the profession (Çiğdem & Memiş, 2011;Pehlivan, 2010), problem solving skills (Şirin & Güzel, 2006;Gencel, 2015), critical thinking skills (Colucciello, 1999;Tümkaya, 2011;Açışlı, 2016;Erdamar & Alpan, 2017), emotional intelligence (Alavinia & Ebrahimpour, 2012;Öznacar, at al., 2018), and metacognition (Başbay, 2013). There are also studies investigating the relationship between learning styles, epistemological beliefs and reflective thinking (Phan, 2008;Mahasneh, 2013;Güneş at al, 2017;Çelik, 2017).…”