Keywords

1 Introduction

School is an institution in which systematic knowledge is received. Students are gradually prepared to lead a responsible and independent adulthood; however, the increased number of behavioral problems suggests that there is a missing link in the way a young person is educated. More often than not what matters the most is how highly the school is classified in the ranking of the best schools (Wosik-Kawala, 2013). Hence teachers are required to do everything in their power to live up to parents’ and authorities’ expectations. Unfortunately, the price for that is high as the teachers’ major attention is paid to constant preparation for various competitions, tests, and exams essential in proving the schools’ position. The students’ upbringing is completely forgotten. Nevertheless, the process of learning does not involve simply perceiving, incorporating and acquiring information. It does not apply particularly to learning foreign languages. Williams and Burden (1997) ascertain that the process of learning a foreign language does not resemble learning other school subjects. There is a social nature involved in this venture. “Language, after all, belongs to a person’s whole social being; it is a part of one’s identity, and it is used to convey this identity to other people” (p. 115); therefore, learning a language requires, apart from possessing learning skills or the knowledge of a system of rules and grammar, development of new abilities, for instance cultural and social behavior. Hence, while communicating in a foreign language, an individual ultimately consciously or subconsciously learns how to become another social being. Consequently, the objectives of foreign language teachers seem to be far more demanding and challenging compared to the aims of teachers of other school subjects for the reason that they are obliged not only to teach a given language but also how to communicate in it. Certain conditions must be fulfilled in order to meet those requirements.

Many researchers (Andres, 2002; Arnold & Brown, 1999; Wosik-Kawala, 2013) emphasize the positive influence of well-established teacher-student social and affective relationships on a learner’s academic success. Due to the constantly occurring social and economic changes, contemporary educational institutions are focused on introducing a great number of adjustments, mainly concerning educators’ attitude towards learners. Many parents who struggle to maintain the family, because of a lack of time, delegate an upbringing obligation to school. Thus a teacher has become a crucial component of a young person’s developmental process. This young person needs support, affection, understanding, compassion as well as security for the sake of establishing decent learning conditions, especially needed during foreign language classes.

The author set out to investigate the level of emotional intelligence among teachers’ of English. Additionally, the examined teachers were evaluated by their students who completed a questionnaire in which they assessed their teachers’ abilities in terms of emotional intelligence. The researcher’s final objective in the study was to select teachers who demonstrated the highest and the lowest level of emotional intelligence to determine the possible correlation between the utilized instruments.

2 Defining Affect

The term affect is related to the aspects of one’s emotional being (Arnold & Brown, 1999). Zeidner, Matthews, and Roberts (2009) define it as an “umbrella term for feeling states that include emotions and moods” (p. 375). Affect is broadly divided into positive (e.g. happiness) and negative (e.g. anxiety, unhappiness, or anger). The first type of affect appears particularly important while initiating a social exchange and experiencing positive affect. Happy children generally tend to be more liked by teachers and peers. Positive feelings assist a child in sustaining social interaction and enhance general communication with peers. The second type of affect, namely the negative one, leads to withdrawals and difficulties with socializing. The quality of social competence is influenced by enduring anger which, in turn, is expressed as hostility expressed by such children (ibid., pp. 152–153).

Mayne (1999) highlights that there exist two diverse classifications in order to describe the phenomenon of affect. The first one refers to the theory of discrete emotions in which words such as fear, distress, and anger are utilized to define basic effects, which Izard (1978, in Mayne, 1999) expands to affective-cognitive orientations justifying that “more elaborated cognitive and behavioral elements” (p. 602) are included. Subsequently, over a period of time, the previously mentioned group of emotions undergoes the process of schematization, association with specific memories, behavioral repertoires as well as conceptualization expanding the basic emotions into independent ones such as anxiety, depression, and hostility. The second classification of affect refers to a dimensional approach in which emotions are described by valance (positive/negative, pleasant/unpleasant) and arousal (high/low). Hence, affect might be investigated from the perspective of emotions. In the present context, affect will be investigated in terms of emotional intelligence which will be explained in the next part of the present article.

3 Affect in Learning

Brown (1994, in Andres, 2002) affirms that acquiring a new language involves a wide range of variables: from psychological to neurological, as well as cognitive and affective ones. A distinctive definition of two domains of learning was provided by Bloom (in Andres, 2002) who claims that learning involves the cognitive and affective domain. The first domain refers to the mental side of human behavior and the latter one embraces the emotional side of that. Nevertheless, as Arnold and Brown (1999) sustain, “the affective side of learning is not in opposition to the cognitive side” (p. 7) and if the learning process is to be formed on a more solid foundation, cognitive and emotional sides must be applied. A very strong opinion is expressed by a professor at the Centre for Neural Science at New York University, LeDoux (1999), who states that “minds without emotions are not really minds at all. They are souls on ice—cold, lifeless creatures devoid of any desires, fears, sorrows, pains, or pleasures” (p. 25). Hence, separating emotions from cognition would be extremely destructive for human beings, limiting their potential in life. Present research indicates that if learning is to take place, education must involve not only the learner’s brain but it must also engage feelings. Fortunately, many educational institutions have started paying attention to affective variables which account for the process of learning. What should matter is not only what a student knows but how he feels and whether he is able to absorb new knowledge. Obviously teachers’ knowledge of a subject matter is fundamental but not sufficient if a teacher aims to make the most of all the potential of a learner (Olson & Wyett, 2000). A significant importance of affect in language learning was expressed by Arnold and Brown (1999) who explain that utilizing affective aspects in the teaching process may enhance not only leaning potentials but also may entail more effective language acquisition. In addition, Goleman (1995) emphasizes that schooling should be based on educating “the whole student, bringing together mind and heart in the classroom” (p. XIV). He also postulates that human competencies, such as self-awareness, empathy, self-control, the ability to listen, to solve conflicts and cooperate must be a part and parcel of the school curriculum if education aims to cater for responsible people, more satisfied with life. The central mission of the school is “to educate students to be knowledgeable, responsible, socially skilled, healthy, caring, and contributing citizens” (Greenberg et al., 2003, p. 466). Accordingly, as a response to the above mentioned requirements, John Heron founded the Human Project at the University of Surrey in 1970 (Arnold & Brown, 1999). Since 1970s similar concerns have been expressed by a great number of foreign and second language teacher trainers.

Education ought to be the institution employing professionals equipped with all the tools which are essential to achieve all the competencies presented by Goleman. The required educators are those who are experts at teaching affectively and conveying information (embracing learners’ emotional aspects). Olson and Wyett (2000) define an affective teacher by stating that such a teacher is an authentic person who is genuine, self-aware and able to behave in accordance with his or her true feelings. Also, such teachers need to see all people as worthy of unconditional positive regard and treat them with dignity and respect. In addition, an affective teacher is an empathic person who understands the feelings of students and responds appropriately to those feelings. And each person working in school must be equipped with the above presented characteristics, predominantly a foreign language teacher who finds plenty of room for dealing with affect during the lesson which is based on meaningful interaction among students. By embracing cognitive and affective domains in teaching, one may enhance the teaching and learning processes. The author of this article pays the greatest attention to the affective side of English language teachers and concentrates on emotions, principally on emotional intelligence.

4 The Emergence of Emotional Intelligence

The concept of emotional intelligence appears to be extremely important for the reason that it “provides a rationale for teaching about emotions, their meanings, and how they operate more generally in our educational programs, and for creating specialties in the understanding of emotion” (Mayer, 2006, p. 23). However, emotional intelligence (EI) was only recognized about three decades ago. The beginning of the twentieth century marked the emergence of cognitive intelligence research and the first psychological test measuring the concept was developed. Soon after, it appeared that this type of intelligence disappointed the researchers and psychologists, predominantly for not being a reliable predictor of one’s life and professional success (Ledzińska, 1999, in Knopp, 2010) which resulted in deeper and further research into the intellectual potential of human beings. Since that time, the concept of general intelligence has been broadened and expanded in the eyes of various researchers. In 1920 Thorndike, for instance, postulated social intelligence claiming that this type of intelligence can be detected in human relations. He defined social intelligence as “the ability to manage and understand men and women, boys and girls, to act wisely in human relations” (Thorndike, 1920, in Taracha, 2010, p. 59). A few decades later Gardner (1983, in Taracha, 2010) proposed the model of multiple intelligences. He distinguished eight intelligences, among others, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences whose definitions resemble the abilities included in the definition of emotional intelligence. Interpersonal intelligence refers to the ability to understand others while intrapersonal intelligence includes such abilities as understanding oneself and one’s inner side and using this knowledge for the sake of managing one’s life. These are the intelligences which are responsible for appropriate human interactions, solving practical life problems, self-understanding and managing other people. “These factors are now described as emotional intelligence” (Michalska, 2004, p. 26), which in many cases appear to be a better life success predictor than generally perceived cognitive intelligence (Goleman, 1995). How to understand this new concept and how can it be defined?

Emotional intelligence, which has received a great deal of attention, is made up of two components: intelligence and emotion. Intelligence encompasses the cognitive spheres of the brain, whereas emotion refers to the affective sphere of the functioning of the brain. Mayer and Salovey (1997) illuminates that “definitions of emotional intelligence should in some way connect emotions with intelligence if the meanings of the two terms are to be preserved” (p. 4). The concept of emotional intelligence was created in 1990 by the abovementioned psychologists who define EI as “the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth” (ibid., p. 5), hence the name—the ability model of emotional intelligence. According to the definition, there are four main abilities which are the components of emotional intelligence: perception, understanding, managing and assimilation of emotions. The basic and the first ability of EI, perception, embraces mainly the knowledge how to identify one’s own and others’ emotions in appearance, behavior, sound and pieces of art. The second ability, understanding, includes conscious analysis and interpretation of emotions and complex feelings as well as the ability to predict transitions likely to occur. Managing emotions consists of emotional self-regulation and self-control, whereas assimilation of emotions deals with such abilities as thinking and reasoning crucial in integrating emotions (Karwowski, 2005). Five years after the introduction of the definition of EI Goleman (1995) published a book entitled Emotional Intelligence: why it can matter more than IQ, in which his model of emotional intelligence is called the mixed model and does not only refer to mental abilities but also other characteristics, dispositions and traits. The researcher explains that being emotionally intelligent means “…being able to motivate oneself and persist in the face of frustrations; to control impulse and delay gratification; to regulate one’s moods and keep distress from swamping the ability to think; to empathize and to hope” (Goleman, 1995, p. 34). Nevertheless, there is a great deal of criticism mainly that the construct is not scientific enough but that it was constructed from a journalist’s viewpoint.

Why, therefore, can emotional competence be so crucial in educational context? The main and fundamental reason is the fact that emotional intelligence can be developed and enhanced throughout our entire life (Goleman, 1995; Salovey & Sluyter, 1997). Additionally, “Children’s effective use of emotions enables them to control their instinctive reactions in stressful conditions, to learn to better communicate their emotional state, to develop healthy relationships with family and friends, and to become successful in school, work and life” (Elias & Weissberg, 2000, p. 180). Therefore, one’s life success in adulthood does not only relate to a high level of general intelligence presented by a student at school. It is more likely that an emotionally intelligent student will have more friends, will be more popular in a group, will be more successful at school and later in professional and personal life than a talented student with a high level of general intelligence. In order to achieve this, educators, parents and teachers should aim to develop students’ abilities of emotional intelligence and this should take place in educational institutions in which human interactions are taught (Michalska, 2004). For that reason, the approach that teachers of foreign languages take advantage of must aim at regulating learners’ emotions and motivating them. When affective factors are taken into account, the cognitive process is initiated as well (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987, in Saeidi & Jabbarpour, 2011). Teachers’ emotional intelligence as well as their affective competencies make the process of teaching absolutely meaningful. Such teachers are efficient in building positive relationships with their students which are based on empathy, respect and encouragement.

The present study examines the level of emotional intelligence of teachers of English and their students’ perception of the examined teachers. After gathering all the data, four selected teachers are interviewed.

5 Method

In order to analyze the relationship between English teachers and their students the researcher measured the teachers’ level of emotional intelligence and then the students taught by the above mentioned teachers completed a questionnaire in which they assessed them. Subsequently, the researcher selected two teachers with the highest and two teachers with the lowest level of EI.

Three main questions were investigated:

RQ1:

Are the teachers with a high level of emotional intelligence better perceived by their students?

RQ2:

Are the teachers with a low level of emotional intelligence worse perceived by their students?

RQ3:

How do high and low EI teachers perceive their students?

5.1 Participants

Three groups of participants took part in the research. The first group consisted of 20 secondary school teachers of English from four the most popular secondary schools in the heart of Częstochowa—19 females and 1 male, aged between 26 and 53 years. The second group involved 493 students of the secondary schools taught by the examined teachers: 332 women and 161 men, aged between 16 and 18 years. The last group, the selected teachers, consisted of 3 females and 1 male, from the group of the abovementioned twenty teachers. The researcher analyzed the TIE 1.0 outcomes of the test and chose 2 teachers demonstrating the highest and two teachers with the lowest level of emotional intelligence.

5.2 Instruments

There were three instruments used in the research. The aim of the first instrument was to assess the teachers’ level of emotional intelligence. It was achieved by means of the TIE 1.0 test created by Śmieja, Orzechowski, and Beauvale (2007). The test, adapted to the Polish context, is a performance test which assesses four abilities based on the model formulated by the creators of the definitions of EI—Mayer and Salovey (1997). These include: perception, understanding, assimilation, and management of emotions. The test consists of 24 items and is divided into two parts. The first part refers to the ability connected with perception and understanding of emotions. The respondents’ task is to reflect on what the main characters felt and thought in a described situation. On a 5-point Likert scale anchored at the ends with a ‘very bad answer’ and a ‘very good answer’ respondents evaluate a protagonist’s probability of experiencing certain emotions. In the second part, which refers to assimilation and management of emotions, the respondents indicate which character’s behaviour would be most effective in a given situation. Also on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from ‘very ineffective’ to ‘very effective’ respondents judge the level of accuracy for the three situations provided (see Appendix 1—it presents exemplary items from each part of the test). The scoring applied in analyzing the responses was based on the comparison of a participant’s responses with answers provided by the panel of experts (52 professionals, including 13 psychotherapists, 14 trainers of management, and 25 HR specialists). The higher the score achieved in the test, the higher level of emotional intelligence. Approximately 30 min are needed to complete the test, which begins with the following exemplary item and answers to it.

Zosia bangs her fist on the table. She has knitted eyebrows, reddened cheeks, and clenched teeth. Probably:

  1. (a)

    she is watching a popular game show on TV

    1 …… 2 …… 3 …… 4 …… 5

  2. (b)

    she has cut herself again while cutting the bread

    1 …… 2 …… 3 …… 4 …… 5

  3. (c)

    a friend, who she was supposed to do a project with, has told her that he won’t be able to help for the reason that he is going on a last-minute holiday

    1 …… 2 …… 3 …… 4 …… 5

Another instrument utilized in the research was the questionnaire entitled Characteristics of the teacher-student relationship (see Appendix 2) created by the researcher with the aim of evaluating the teacher-student relationship taking into account emotional aspects demonstrated by teachers. The questionnaire was formulated on the basis of the publication Teaching with Emotional Intelligence: A step-by-step guide for higher and further education professionals (Mortiboys, 2005) and consisted of 18 items with answers given on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1—strongly disagree to 5—strongly agree. The lowest possible score was 18 points and the highest 90 points. Approximately 10 min are needed to complete it.

The third instrument was an interview with four selected teachers. They were chosen after the analysis of the outcomes of the TIE 1.0 test on emotional intelligence, earlier completed by the teachers from the research. Two teachers with the highest and two teachers with the lowest level of emotional intelligence were interviewed. The teachers agreed to devote a part of their free time after their work, the researcher spend approximately 10 min with each teacher. By interviewing the teachers, the researcher was able to determine their attitude towards their students (see Appendix 3). The issues that they were asked about referred to their self-assessment and experience in teaching, the way they are perceived by their students as well as their general knowledge about emotional intelligence and willingness to develop and increase it.

5.3 Procedure

All the data mentioned in the previous part was gathered at the beginning of the school year in 2012. The researcher first asked the head teachers for permission and then individual English teachers from four secondary schools in the centre of Częstochowa. Because of the amount of time needed for completion of the TIE 1.0 test on EI (approximately 25 min), the researcher asked the teachers to complete the tests at home and bring them back the following day. Subsequently, the students of the selected teachers were asked to complete the questionnaire during one of their English lessons, which took about 10 min of their lesson. After gathering all the information, arithmetical means of the results of the questionnaires were counted and computed and STATISTICA 10 programme was utilized in order to calculate the teachers’ level of EI. The final point in the research was the interview with the selected four teachers who presented a variety in terms of their level of emotional intelligence.

6 Results and Discussion

The researcher’s primary aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the level of emotional intelligence of teachers of English and the way they are perceived by their students. Additionally, the selected teachers’ attitude towards their learners was analyzed. In order to examine the above mentioned correlation, three main questions were investigated. The first two questions referred to the teachers’ level of emotional intelligence and its possible impact on the way they perceive their students.

In order to assess the teachers’ level of emotional intelligence, the TIE 1.0 test was applied. Four subscales were taken into account: perception, understanding, assimilation and management. The results are presented in Table 1.

Table 1 The teacher’s level of emotional intelligence
Full size table

The figures presented in Table 1 indicate the teachers’ level of emotional intelligence. Four subscales of EI were investigated and as the results show, the highest mean outcome was obtained in the ability to perceive emotions (M = 8.44). The management of emotions appeared to score the lowest mean (M = 6.91) of the four components of EI, which means that managing emotions is a matter which needs to be thoroughly examined and developed.

Examining the students’ perception of their teacher was the next step in the research. It was conducted by means of a questionnaire created by the researcher (see Appendix 2) and it enabled the researcher to determine a correlation between the utilized instruments. Also, the students’ completion of the questionnaires aimed to detect the students’ relationships with their teachers in terms of emotional intelligence.

Table 2 presents the correlation (r) between the two variables: the quality of the teacher-student relationship and the teachers’ global level of emotional intelligence examined in four areas: perception, understanding, assimilation, and management, where X is the value of a teacher-student relationship, Y is the teachers’ global level of emotional intelligence examined. The data was obtained via the TIE 1.0 test on EI and the applied questionnaire designed by the researcher. A significant correlation in terms of perception, understanding, assimilation and the general score of EI is visible and it takes the value p < 0.05. The management scale does not correlate, however, the overall results indicate a correlation between the teacher’s EI and their relationships with the students.

Table 2 The relationship between the instruments
Full size table

The results of the study provided the answers to the subsequent research questions (RQ1 and RQ2) and indicate that there is a correlation between the teachers’ level of emotional intelligence and the way they are perceived by their students. The higher the teachers’ level of EI, the better they are perceived by their students. The teachers demonstrating a higher level of EI are more positively assessed and perceived by their students. Also, such teachers show greater empathy towards learners, taking into account their affective side as well as listening carefully and respecting them. What learners value and appreciate in an emotionally intelligent teacher is motivation and enthusiasm and the fact that the teacher is able to devote some part of the lesson to a free discussion if the situation requires it. Analogically, the teachers of lower level of emotional intelligence are not so positively assessed by their students and seem to lack emotional competence treating their students not in a holistic way but rather as subjects to teach.

The researcher’s final research question (RQ3) was answered by means of interviews conducted with the selected teachers. There were eleven questions created for that purpose. The interviews were recorded and then analysed (see Appendix 3). Four teachers were selected (2 with a high level of EI and 2 with a low level of EI) and interviewed by the researcher. The gathered information was analyzed and slight differences in the examined teachers’ treatment towards learners were visible. Teachers No. 1 and 2 are the people who value self-development and they are eager to increase their qualification in teaching. They also demonstrate a friendly approach towards a learner and a desire to motivate him/her. An obligatory aspect which must be present is mutual cooperation between a teacher and a student, so as to enhance a student’s performance. Emotions and moods are taken into account during an English lesson. These teachers would like to enhance and develop their emotional competence, as they realize the importance of emotions in a young person’s life. The teachers with a low level of emotional intelligence (teachers No. 3 and 4) belong to a group of strict and demanding people that try not to display emotions at work keeping a distance to their students. The learner, obviously, is not a friend but somebody who must learn and pass the tests. These are the teachers who will not necessarily acquire better qualification for the sake of improving the effectiveness of teaching, particularly taking into account the emotional aspects. Teacher No. 3 is not eager to increase her level of emotional intelligence and teacher No. 4 believes that her level of emotional intelligence is at an appropriate level.

7 Conclusions

The results of the above presented study indicate that affective competencies demonstrated by teachers of English are of great importance. Their attitude towards their learners may in many cases be a great factor in academic achievement. Those teachers who presented a higher level of EI were much better assessed by their students. Also, the two selected teachers with a high level of EI treat their students differently from the teachers with a low level of EI. Therefore, teachers must realize how important their emotional intelligence is and then they will be able to perceive and recognize students’ emotional needs during the English lesson. In order to be successful a teacher ought to know not only what learners know but also how they feel and whether there are aspects by means of which the learning process can be enhanced. When teachers create a friendly atmosphere based on positive emotional climate in which they recognize students’ feelings and treat them with respect, the teacher-student relationship is much greater which in turn reflects the students’ progress in learning the language. Additionally, in such learning conditions students do not experience anxiety and stress, hence they participate more often and take risks while speaking in a foreign language. Not only are students satisfied with a teacher who creates a friendly and approachable environment but also such teachers may gain more satisfaction from their profession.

8 Implications

Higher academic outcomes and overall development are within the reach of each educational institution. Nevertheless, in order to achieve this, teachers must not focus only on mastering reading, writing, science, mathematics, history, etc. but also on “broader educational agenda that also involves enhancing students’ social-emotional competence, character, health, and civic engagement” (Greenberg et al., 2003, p. 466). The contemporary school must undergo transformation so as not to resemble the school from the past any more. The requirements are a great deal higher and very often the resources are inadequate. Nowadays the school is the place of a multicultural and multilingual community of wide-ranging abilities and motivations for studying. Young people experience mental health problems, high-risk behaviors, violence, substance abuse, etc. These concerns contributed to the introduction of a new term—social and emotional learning (SEL) during the Fetzer Institute in 1994 (Greenberg et al., 2003). Denise Scala (a guidance counselor at the Stillman Elementary School in Plainfield, US) in the introduction to Elias’s (2006) article affirms that “SEL by itself cannot move schools forward. However, balanced with an exciting and relevant curriculum, it can help to push students to the next level. All students have the potential to succeed … the emotionally healthy will” (p. 3). Keeping that in mind, educational institutions should fulfill the needs of every student. The journey, however, should begin from teachers’ emotional balance, appropriate management of their emotions and only then should they proceed to incorporate aspects of emotional intelligence in the process of teaching so as to make the journey fruitful and based on supporting students’ abilities and potentials.