L2 Learners’ Affect and Pragmatic Performance: A Focus on Emotional Intelligence and Gender Dimensions

Research on l2 learners’ success at development and appropriate use of pragmaticability and knowledge has mostly approached the issue from a cognitive or socialperspective, and less attention has been devoted to the problem from the equallyimportant emotional or individual-psychological lenses. this study sought toexplore, first, the interplay between iranian advanced efl learners’ pragmaticperformance and the different dimensions of their emotional intelligence (ei) and,second, the possible influence of gender on this association. a sample of 80 (32males and 48 females) advanced m.a. tefl students from 2 iranian universitiesconstituted the participants of the study. the bar-on’s eq-i measure of ei and liu’s(2006) test of pragmatic performance were administered to the participants. resultsof the descriptive statistics indicated that the participants performed better inintrapersonal, interpersonal, and adaptability skills consecutively. pearson productmoment correlational results revealed that there were 3 medium positive correlationsbetween the participants’ pragmatic performance and their intrapersonal,interpersonal, and ei dimensions, as well as 2 small positive correlations betweenthe participants’ pragmatic performance and their adaptability and stressmanagement abilities. results also indicated that the females with more ei andintrapersonal skills performed better on the pragmatics test than the males. findingssuggest that pragmatic development and performance are intricately linked to learneraffect, subjectivity, and emotions, and that this interplay, in turn, is not immune togender influence. theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed.