A Study Of The Relationship Among Junior High School Students’ Trait Emotional Intelligence,Foreign Language Learning Boredom And English Achievement

Trait emotional intelligence(TEI)and a variety of classroom emotions have received increasing attention in the domain of second language acquisition with the advent of Positive Psychology.Boredom is one of the emotions that have captured scholars’ interest.However,the current research concerning TEI mainly focuses on its relation with anxiety and enjoyment.It remains underexplored how TEI is linked to boredom in foreign language learning.What’s more,considering the effect of TEI and boredom on academic achievement documented in existing literature,it is worthwhile to investigate their influence on English achievement(EA).Therefore,the study aims to explore the relationship among TEI,foreign language learning boredom(FLLB)and EA.A total of 247 junior high school students participated in this study.Data were collected through questionnaire survey,mid-term exam and semi-structured interview.Questionnaires include the Foreign Language Learning Boredom Scale(FLLBS)and Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form(TEIQue-SF).There are three research questions in this study:(1)What is the general profile of junior high school students’ TEI?(2)What is the general profile of junior high school students’ FLLB?(3)What is the relationship among junior high school students’ TEI,FLLB and EA?After the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data,the major findings of the study are presented as follows.Firstly,most junior high school students are of medium to high levels of TEI,indicating that the majority of them are able to perceive and regulate their emotions effectively.Secondly,most junior high school students have low to middle levels of FLLB,meaning that the majority of them are slightly and moderately bored.PowerPoint presentation and overchallenging or meaningless tasks are the main sources of students’ boredom.Thirdly,there exist significant correlations between TEI,FLLB and EA.Students’ TEI and EA are positively correlated,while TEI and FLLB,FLLB and EA are both negatively linked to each other.In addition,FLLB plays a mediating role between students’ TEI and EA.Based on the above findings,the study offers some implications for teachers,students and schools in order to improve students’ emotional well-being and English achievement.