On the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Directive Speech Acts Preference

Language and emotion are two related systems in use, in that one system(emotions) impacts the performance of the other (language). both of themshare their functionality in communication. since the nature of foreignlanguage classrooms is ideally interactional, emotional intelligence (ei) gainsimportance. the aim of this study was to find out whether one's totalemotional quotient and its components influence one's preference for acertain type of directive speech act in a given speech event. twoquestionnaires, namely, the bar-on emotional quotient inventory anddirective speech acts (dsa) were completed by 120 undergraduatestudents, at three universities in iran, and the data were analyzed through chisquare. the results revealed that there was statistically significantrelationship between interpersonal intelligence and dsa preference for orderand request. there was, however, no significant relationship betweendirective speech act preferences and other components of emotionalintelligence.