The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence, Lexical Diversity and the Syntactic Complexity of EFL Learners’ Written Productions

The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to see the effect of literature-based activities on the emotional intelligence, lexical diversity and the syntactic complexity of EFL students‟ written productions, based on Goleman‟s framework (n=133), (2) to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence, lexical diversity and the syntactic complexity of EFL students‟ written productions and (3) to investigate whether students in majors more exposed to literary texts depict more improvement in the lexical diversity and syntactic complexity of their written productions. (n=84). In the first phase of the study, the experimental group was given some literary works with highly emotional content. The results indicated that the experimental group scored higher on Emotional Intelligence (EI) test, lexical diversity but not on the syntactic complexity of their written productions compared with the control group. In the second phase of the study, the statistical analysis of the syntactic complexity and lexical diversity of the Literature and Translation students‟ written productions revealed no significant difference of complexity but significant difference of lexical diversity of Literature majors‟ productions; despite the fact that the mean indices of complexity of their written productions were higher than Translation majors. The results have some implications for teachers and practitioners in EFL context.