Critical Thinking and Emotional Intelligence: Investigating the Relationship among EFL Learners and the Contribution of Age and Gender

The present article, first, examines the relationship between EFL university studentsʹ critical thinking (CT) and emotional intelligence (EI). Second, the roles of gender and age as moderating factors in the relationship between studentsʹ CT and EI are investigated. Third, the relationships between studentsʹ age and gender with their EI are studied. To attain the goals of the research, 86 EFL students completed the "Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal" (Form A) and the "Bar-Onʹs EQ-i test". The findings of the study indicated that there was a significant relationship between EFL learnersʹ CT and their EI. Among the components of EI, flexibility and social responsibility were found to have the highest correlations with CT and were also shown to be positive predictors of CT. The results also revealed that age and gender did not moderate the relationship between CT and EI. Furthermore, it was found that neither age nor gender played any significant roles in learnersʹ level of EQ.