Longitudinal Examination of Iranian L2 Learners' Trait Emotional Intelligence and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety: Latent Growth Curve Modeling

One of the important abilities to understand emotions of others and oneself is emotional intelligence (EI). In addition, studies in the realm of psycholinguistics have indicated that EI is a highly relevant variable for managing negative emotions such as foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA). In this study, we investigated the longitudinal association between adult English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ trait emotional intelligence (TEI) and foreign language anxiety (FLCA). To this end, we conducted Latent Growth Curve Modeling (LGCM) to analyze data collected from 309 Iranian L2 learners in three measurement occasions during a year of learning English in private institutes. The results showed that while L2 learners' TEI increased, their level of FLCA decreased during the year. Also, at the beginning of the study, the significant negative correlation between L2 learners' TEI and FLCA was low but, during the semester, the negative correlation between the two variables turned out to be high