Off The Beaten Path - Emotional Intelligence

Hall Houston, Hong Kong

Hall Houston is an English Instructor at City University of Hong Kong, English Language Centre. His first book, The Creative Classroom, was published in 2007 by Lynx Publishing (www.lynxpublishing.com). His professional interests include cross-cultural communication, discourse analysis, creativity and critical thinking. E-mail: hallhouston@yahoo.com

The term emotional intelligence (also known as EQ) comes from Daniel Goleman's 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence. Eaton and Johnson (2001) define emotional intelligence as "our ability to inform our decisions with an understanding of our own and others' emotions in order to act productively...it means the ability to manage our own emotions (intrapersonal intelligence) and the ability to interact well with others (interpersonal intelligence).

There are four major skills of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self- management, social awareness, and relationship management. Self-awareness involves being aware of your current emotional state, along with your normal reactions to different people and situations. Self-management is how you act based on your self-awareness. Social awareness is the skill at picking up on how people are feeling. Finally, relationship management is the culmination of the other three skills. It's your ability to read your own emotions and those of others and how you use this knowledge in interactions with others.

Emotional intelligence has been developed into educational programs such as emotional literacy and socio-emotional learning. Emotional literacy programs aim at improved communication and relationships which ultimately enrich the learning experience. There is an emphasis on exploring the feelings students have at school. Students build strong relationships with peers and they are encouraged to talk with teachers about different facets of school life. The business sector has also developed emotional intelligence training for managers and employees.

Some components of emotional literacy/emotional intelligence training:

• Developing a vocabulary for expressing feelings
• Becoming aware of the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and actions
• Role playing difficult situations that occur in school
• Discussions about alternative ways of handling problems
• Nurturing empathy for others, taking other people's perspective

To learn more about emotional intelligence and emotional literacy, consult the resources listed below:

Further Reading

Bradberry, T., & Greaves J. 2005. The emotional intelligence quick book. New York: Fireside.

Eaton, J., & Johnson, R. 2001. Communicate with emotional intelligence. Oxford: How to Books.

Elias, M., and Arnold, H., eds. 2006. The educator's guide to emotional intelligence and academic achievement. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.

Goleman, D. 1995. Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam.

Park, J., Haddon, A., and Goodman, H. 2003. The emotional literacy handbook. London: David Fulton Publishers.

Hughes, M., Patterson, L., and Terrell, B. 2005. Emotional intelligence in action. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Segal, J. 1997. Raising your emotional intelligence. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Websites

www.emotionalliteracyeducation.com
www.6seconds.org
www.antidote.org.uk
www.schoolofemotional-literacy.com

Please check the Expert Teacher course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the What's New in Language Teaching course at Pilgrims website.