Prospective EFL Teachers’ Emotional Intelligence and Tablet Computer Use and Literacy

 

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a relationship between tablet computer use and literacy, and emotional intelligence of prospective English language teachers. The study used a survey approach. In the study, ‘Prospective Teachers Tablet Computer Use and Literacy Scale’ and an adapted and translated version into Turkish of 'Emotional Intelligence Scale' were used as two data collection tools. The participants of the study consisted of randomly selected 149 females and 64 males; in total, 213 prospective teachers of English from the English Language Teaching Departments of Sakarya and Gazi Universities in the 2016-2017 academic year were involved. The study revealed the fact that, variables such as gender, age, status of having a tablet PC have statically significant effect on tablet PC use and literacy skills of prospective teachers of English. On the other hand, it was found that there was no statistically significant difference in emotional intelligence levels of participants in terms of gender, age, status of owning a tablet PC and duration of tablet PC use. When the correlation between the scales was evaluated, a negative relation was determined among tablet PC use and literacy skills and emotional intelligence.