A Study Of The Correlation Between Junior High School Students' EI And WTC In Spoken English Inside The Classrooms

WTC,due to its positive influence on language learning,has been widely studied.Many studies at home and abroad show that WTC is closely related to psychological,personal,social,and communicative variables.However,there is little empirical research attempting to link WTC with emotional intelligence in individuals.Therefore,the present study aims to investigate the correlation between emotional intelligence and WTC in spoken English inside the classrooms,expecting to have some pedagogical implications.In this study,the questionnaires were distributed to 176 junior high school students of three different grades from one junior high school in Yunnan province,and 12 of the participants were interviewed.Based on the previous research on WTC,this study aims to explore:(1)What are the current situations of junior high school students‘ WTC in spoken English inside the classrooms(WTCI)?(2)What are the current situations of junior high school students‘ Emotional Intel igence(EI)?(3)What is the correlation between EI and WTCI?(4)To what extent can EI influence WTCI?The results of the study are as follows:(1)First,junior high school students in this study have a slightly lower than the medium level of willingness to be engaged in oral communication in English inside the classroom and they behave in a very negative way towards it.Second,WTC in spoken English inside the classrooms is significantly varied by grade levels but is not significantly varied by gender difference.Besides,there is a significant low positive correlation between WTCI and mid-term English exam scores.(2)The overall level of junior high school students‘ emotional intelligence is above the average.There is no significant gender difference and grade difference in EI and its four components.In addition,the participants‘ emotional intelligence in this study is not in connection with their English scores.(3)There are positive significant correlations of overall WTCI with overall EI and four dimensions of EI.(4)The combination of the four independent dimensions of EI significantly predicts the students‘ WTCI.The students‘ Use Of Emotion(UOE)and Others‘ Emotion Appraisal(OEA)significantly contributes to the prediction of their WTCI and Use Of Emotion(UOE)contributes most to predicting students‘ WTCI.But the students‘ Regulation Of Emotion(ROE)and Self-Emotional Appraisal(SEA)make no significant contribution to their WTCI,indicating that they are not effective predictors of students‘ WTCI.The findings of this study highlight the importance of incorporating emotional instruction in the curriculum and contribute to bringing some new insights into Chinese current WTC research field and further understanding of Chinese junior high school students‘ WTC in English.