GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ESL LEARNERS’ EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SKILLS IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION AT BAHAWALPUR

Abstract

The present paper aims to explore the differences between male and female second language learners’ emotional intelligence (EI) skills in university education. The study was carried out among 250 ESL learners at the Islamia University of Bahawalpur. The participants included 66 male and 184 female L2 learners enrolled in BS program at six different departments of the university. The research tools include two self-report questionnaires, i.e. Petrides’ (2009) Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (Short Form), and Austin et al.’s (2004) Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Scale (SREIS) which aimed to measure the level of participants’ trait and ability emotional intelligence skills respectively. The data collected through the questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively by using SPSS (Statistical Packages for social sciences). The analysis of the data revealed that there is no difference in males’ and females’ overall trait EI mean scores and ability EI mean scores. The same is the case with the majority of the subskills of EI which show no considerable differences between both genders, except for the two skills: emotion management and mood regulation. In case of emotion management, males have shown a slightly higher capacity of self-control than females, while in case of mood regulation, females have shown slightly better capability of being optimistic and regulating moods. The findings of the present study are significant to predict ESL university learners’ success in the second language. Furthermore, knowing the differences in subscales of EI between the two genders may also be helpful in directing an appropriate, explicit EI instruction to both genders which may lead to better EI skills and hence, may result in better ESL learning.