Emotional intelligence as a mediator in the relationship between neuroticism and L2 achievement

Abstract The present study investigates the interaction of the higher-order personality trait of Neuroticism and the lower-order personality trait of Emotional Intelligence (trait EI) in the context of foreign language acquisition (FLA). A mediation model was applied to explore the pathway from Neuroticism via trait EI to self-rated L2 skills. The reported results show that the trait EI is not only a significant predictor of the self-reported L2 speaking proficiency, but also a mediator in the relationship between Neuroticism and self-rated L2 speaking proficiency. Consequently, trait EI could be regarded as an important variable in the FLA context because its positive impact on self-percei…