Iranian EFL Teachers' Emotional Intelligence and their Use of Speaking Strategies

Abstract

The study was designed to investigate the differences among Iranian EFL teachers in terms of emotional intelligence (EI) and their use of speaking strategies. To this end, 90 EFL male and female teachers teaching English at 9 institutes in Behshahr, Sari, and Amol cities in Mazandaran Province (north of Iran) were randomly selected. The research data were collected through the Bar-On EQ-I scale and teachers' use of speaking strategies questionnaire. Results on Independent Sample t-test reported significant differences in teachers' EI across gender. One-way ANOVA revealed differences in teachers' EI across years of teaching experience. Furthermore, results on Kruskal Wallis Test indicated differences in teachers' use of each speaking strategy regarding their level of EI. Based on the findings, teachers with a higher level of EI preferred to focus on both accuracy and fluency and apply story-telling activities to create more successful interaction. While teachers with a lower level of EI preferred to focus on accuracy, they liked to apply information-gap activities. They preferred to offer implicit feedback through reformulation and tended to design groups and pairs to make silent students interact in the classroom. Moreover, both groups preferred to correct their learners later.