Online Language Courses During the Covid-19 Outbreak and Iranian Efl Learners' Emotional Intelligence: A Comparative Study Between Synchronous and Asynchronous Text-Based Computer-Mediated Communications

Following the covid-19 outbreak, all learning courses were switched to virtual mode. the present study is an attempt to find out which methods of online language learning courses, namely synchronous and asynchronous has a more significant impact on increasing iranian efl learners’ emotional intelligence during the covid-19 outbreak. to this end, iranian efl learners, who were homogeneous in terms of their language proficiency, were chosen as the participants of the study. these learners were assigned to two classes that had the same purpose and were taught by the same teacher. the synchronous course ran using whatsapp mobile application where students and teacher could chat simultaneously in a class group, but the asynchronous course held using direct massaging vie whatsapp. persian version of emotional quotient inventory (eq-i) (bar-on, 1997a) was used as the pretest and posttest in order to assess the participants’ emotional intelligence before and after online classes. subsequent data analysis using an independent t-test revealed that there is a significant difference between the two classes. indeed, in the synchronous class, emotional intelligence was dramatically improved due to the possibility of peer interactions and immediate feedback on learners’ performance. at the end of the article, the theoretical and pedagogical implications of the study are further discussed.