Are women more emotionally skilled when it comes to expression of emotions in the foreign language? Gender, emotional intelligence and personality traits in relation to emotional expression in the L2

ABSTRACT

The present study investigates the link between gender, emotional intelligence (EI), personality traits and self-reported emotional expression in the second language (L2). Data analysis suggests that gender might not influence self-perceived emotional expression in the L2, as the results of the t-test show that both males and females declare similar frequency of expressing emotions in their L2. However, statistical analysis reports significant differences between males and females as far as personality traits of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability/Neuroticism and EI trait of Emotional Regulation are concerned. At the same time, correlation analysis shows that personality traits of Extraversion, Openness and Agreeableness together with the EI trait of Empathy are strongly linked to emotional expression in the L2, suggesting that there might be some indirect relationship between gender and emotional expression in the L2. The results of this study highlight the complexity of the relationship between gender, language, personality, culture and emotions, suggesting that both EI and personality should be incorporated into further research on gender and various aspects of bilingualism.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• expression of emotions
• EI
• personality traits
• bilingualism

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.