The effect of socio-affective language learning strategies and emotional intelligence training on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' foreign language anxiety in speaking classes

Abstract

The study aims to explore the possible effects of socio-affective language learning strategies (LLSs) and emotional intelligence (EI) training on EFL students‟ foreign language anxiety (FLA) in speaking courses. With this aim, the study was carried out with 50 elementary level EFL learners and three speaking skills teachers at a state university in Turkey. The participating students had a five-week training based on the socioaffective LLSs suggested by Oxford (1990) and the skills in Bar-On‟s (2000) EI model in their speaking skills lessons. Before and after the interval, all the participating students were administered both the “Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale” (FLCAS) and the “Socio-Affective Strategy Inventory of Language Learning” (SASILL), which served as pre- and post-questionnaires. In addition, students were asked to fill in perception cards in each training week, and six students and the three teachers who gave the training were interviewed in order to collect qualitative data related to the participants‟ attitudes towards individual strategies/skill and the treatment in general. As a result, quantitative data analysis from the pre- and post-FLCAS indicated that there was a statistically significant decrease in the participating students‟ overall anxiety levels. However, the students‟ perceptions on the socioaffective strategies did not differ much after the training. Only two affective strategies were observed to have a significant increase in their uses: “rewarding yourself” and “lowering your anxiety”. The results of the content analysis of the perception cards revealed that the students mostly liked the training activity Give and Receive Compliments, which aimed to teach the “interpersonal relationship” competence of EI and the social LLS of “cooperating with others”. On the other hand, the activity that the students enjoyed the least was Use the System of ABCD, which aimed to address the affective LLS of “lowering your anxiety” and the EI skill of “impulse control”. Furthermore, the thematic analysis of student and teacher interviews demonstrated that the training was enjoyable, beneficial in general, and useful in diagnosing the feeling of foreign language anxiety; nevertheless, that some strategies and skills were difficult to apply and some training activities were mechanical and unattractive were the other reported common ideas.