Emotional intelligence as a moderator in the relationship between foreign language enjoyment and English proficiency among Chinese ethnic minority undergraduates

Abstract

Chinese ethnic minority learners generally encounter greater difficulties in learning English and exhibit lower levels of English proficiency than their Han majority counterparts. Yet limited research has investigated the emotional factors that may influence the English achievement of ethnic minority undergraduate students in China. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap in the existing literature by examining the levels of emotional intelligence (EI), foreign language enjoyment (FLE), and English proficiency among ethnic minority undergraduates in China, as well as the effects of FLE and EI on English proficiency. Furthermore, this research seeks to investigate whether EI moderates the relationship between FLE and English achievement by influencing the strength and direction of this association. Employing a quantitative research approach with a cross-sectional survey-based PLS-SEM design and simple random sampling, this study collected data from 465 ethnic minority college students using three validated questionnaires. Results demonstrated that participants exhibited low-to-medium EI and medium FLE. The regression results demonstrated that the effect sizes of EI and FLE on English proficiency were large and small, respectively. In addition, the moderation analysis revealed that EI significantly and positively moderated the relationship between FLE and English achievement, with a large effect size. The results emphasize the significant impact of EI on promoting English proficiency among ethnic minority undergraduates. This could be achieved by integrating special activities into the curriculum to promote emotional regulation, creating a more conducive, holistic learning experience for students’ language acquisition.