Emotional Intelligence, Basic Psychological Needs, and Their Links to Resilience and EFL Achievement Among Saudi Foundation-Year Students

Learning a foreign language requires learners to regulate their emotions, maintain motivation, and cope with various academic challenges. Building on the established literature on basic psychological needs (BPN) satisfaction in second-language education and grounded in self-determination theory (SDT), this study examined the relationships among emotional intelligence (EI), BPN satisfaction, resilience, and EFL achievement in a sample of 305 first-year students enrolled in mandatory foundation-year English courses at a single Saudi university. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the direct associations among these constructs and the indirect associations between EI and resilience and between EI and EFL achievement through BPN satisfaction. EI was positively associated with BPN satisfaction and resilience but did not show a significant direct association with EFL achievement. BPN satisfaction was positively associated with both resilience and EFL achievement. EI also showed significant indirect associations with resilience and EFL achievement through BPN satisfaction. The proposed model accounted for approximately 60% of the variance in BPN satisfaction, 67% of the variance in resilience, and 27% of the variance in EFL achievement. Findings involving EFL achievement are preliminary given the measurement limitations of this construct. Overall, the findings advance our understanding of the relationships among EI, BPN satisfaction, resilience, and EFL achievement in an EFL context.