Undertaking Emotional Intelligence Skills Training to overcome Speaking Anxiety among Non-Native Pre-Service EFL Teachers

Abstract

With the growing number of the learners who suffer from Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety (FLSA), it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore its harmful outcomes on their performance and success, especially during their first contact with the pupils, as they will be teaching in the near future. The present study sheds light on Emotional Intelligence skills training as an effective strategy to help learners lessen their speaking anxiety and eventually to prepare them for their professional career. A quasi-experiment is used with two groups of third year EFL students. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i) were used to collect data about the participants’ FLSA and EI levels. The data analysis has yielded that the assumption that there is a negative correlation between EI and FLSA was statistically validated by the Pearson Correlation Test, concluding that, the more emotionally intelligent the individual is the less anxious s/he will be. In addition, the lack of amelioration in the results of the control group and the noteworthy improvement in the experimental group’s results led us to conclude that the training was an effective strategy in minimizing the FLSA level and therefore, we confirmed our hypothesis.