EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS - A Study on ESL Speaking Skills Development

Oct 15, 2026

Investigating factors behind successful acquisition of ESL oral communication skills among Ukrainian adult learners of International Relations, the study examines how emotional intelligence relates to and can enhance speaking and listening development. Guided by the hypothesis that content-related emotions increase emotional involvement and positively affect oral communication acquisition, the authors use Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Testing and an English Language Oral Communication Skills Test on 124 undergraduates (Sept 2018–May 2019), measuring key indicators on a 100-point scale.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Emotional intelligence and learning processes

Emotions and their influence on adult ESL learning

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS Тetiana Andrienko Kyiv International University, Kyiv, Ukraine [tania_andrienko@gmail.com](tania_andrienko@gmail.com) Nataliia Chumak Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine [nataliiachumak7@gmail.com](nataliiachumak7@gmail.com) Vlad Genin UOPX, Silicon Valley-Bay Area Campus, San Francisco, California, USA [vladgenin@yahoo.com](vladgenin@yahoo.com) Studying the factors of successful acquisition of ESL speaking skills in Ukrainian adult learners, the authors focused on the correlation between emotional intelligence and development of oral communication skills, and, on the other hand, on the growth of these indicators as a result of purposeful inclusion of content-related emotions into activities aimed at the development of speaking and listening skills. Theoretically based on the ideas of emotional intelligence as an important factor in human interaction and guided by the hypothesis that content-related emotions intensify emotional involvement and have a positive influence on the acquisition of oral communication skills, the researchers applied Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test and the English Language Oral Communication Skills Test developed by the authors, to measure the key oral communication skills indicators against a 100 point scale. Experimental teaching of 124 undergraduate students of International Relations during September 2018 – May 2019 proved a beneficial influence of including emotions in the learning activities on the acquisition of ESL oral communication skills, as well as on student motivation and overall quality of student experiences. Significant increments in Emotional Intelligence and ESL oral communication skills in the experimental group compared to insignificant growth of the same indicators in the Reference group allow to establish a positive correlation between the growth of emotional intelligence and acquisition of the ESL speaking skills pursuant to inclusion of content-related emotions into the ESL learning in Ukrainian students. Keywords: emotional intelligence; ESL learning; oral communication skills; content-related emotions; adult education. Introduction Recent developments in psychology, pedagogical and andragogical studies prove that the results of learning activity do not solely depend on the students’ intellectual potential and cognitive efforts, inferring the importance of studying the role of emotions in successful acquisition of required skills, in particular, in adult education. Specifically, mastering effective oral communication skills in a foreign language for adult learners majoring in International Relations is an important professional competence ensuring their ability to efficiently exert influences on the audience, persuade interlocutors, effectively negotiate etc. The role of emotional involvement, along with cognitive efforts, in learning a foreign language and acquisition of communication skills in that language, is of interest to teaching methodology, pedagogical and androgogical studies as well as to educational psychology. Learning occurs when an individual has a relatively permanent change in behaviour, cognition, brain function, abilities or knowledge as a result of experiences. Over the past two decades, advances in neuroscience have revolutionised the way we think about the connection between learning, emotions and the brain. We now have extensive evidence that emotions and learning are inextricably connected (Panksepp, 1998; Immordino‐Yang & Damasio, 2007; Tyng et al., 2017; Estrada Guillén & al., 2019). It is undoubted that a person’s emotional state greatly influences the effectiveness of learning. However, there is no agreement as to the type of influence emotions exert on learning. According to some reliable data, positive emotions aid learning while negative emotions prevent a person from learning effectively (Gu

FAQs

What is the central focus of the study?

The study focuses on how emotional intelligence and content-related emotions affect the acquisition of ESL oral communication skills in Ukrainian adult learners.

How were emotional intelligence and speaking skills measured?

Emotional intelligence was measured using the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso test, and oral communication skills were measured with an English Language Oral Communication Skills Test on a 100-point scale.

What did the teaching experiment show about including emotions in learning?

Including content-related emotions in learning activities produced beneficial effects on ESL oral communication skill acquisition, student motivation, and overall learning experience quality compared with the reference group.

Oct 15, 2026

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