Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-4-2019

Publication Title

TEANGA, the Journal of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics

First Page

79

Last Page

106

DOI

10.35903/teanga.v26i0.85

Additional Publication URL

https://doi.org/10.35903/teanga.v26i0.85

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of motivational orientations and the social aspects of emotional intelligence (EI) on L2 Spanish learners’ willingness to participate in a study abroad program. The only significant result was the correlation between an integrative motivational orientation and the Altruism Scale score (N = 68, r = .290, p < .05), indicating that those learners with a higher desire to learn the L2 in order to interact with members of the target community also showed more responsiveness to others as measured by empathy, nurturance, helpfulness, and social responsibility. No additional interactions were found between the motivational orientations and the social aspects of EI. Neither the motivational orientations (integrative/instrumental) nor the social subscales of EI used correlated with the L2 learners’ participation in a short-term (three weeks to Costa Rica, N = 30) or a long-term study abroad program (a full semester to Spain, N = 13). This finding is indicative that those variables do not seem to have an influential effect or predictability on whether participants would ultimately continue their study of L2 Spanish in a foreign country or at home in the near future.

Rights

Originally published by TEANGA, the Journal of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) in TEANGA, the Journal of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics, 2019, Volume 26. DOI: 10.35903/teanga.v26i0.85.

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