i39
Issue 39. Autumn 2025
Thematic section: Socioemotional issues in language teaching: feelings, respect and ethics
Thematic section editor: Teresa Fernández-Ulloa (California State University)
Important dates:
- Deadline for submission of articles: 30 August 2025
- Notification of review/acceptance: 15 October 2025
- Publication date: November-December 2025
*Pre-proposals with a 400-word abstract are accepted until 30 June 2025, by writing to guest editor Teresa Fernández-Ulloa <tfernandez_ulloa@csub.edu>
Call for proposals:
Interest in social-emotional skills began with the work of Howard Gardner, who identified different types of intelligence, such as linguistic-verbal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence and interpersonal intelligence (Gardner, 1983). Later, Goleman (1995: 89) coined the term emotional intelligence to describe the ability to recognise our own and others' feelings, to motivate ourselves and to manage relationships appropriately.
Gardner (2006) also speaks of certain types of mindsets that need to be cultivated, such as respectful and ethical mindsets.
Teaching languages effectively involves more than just mastering the language in question or employing certain teaching methods and techniques; studies on effective or motivating teaching have found that teacher characteristics such as humour, trusting and respectful relationships, among others, are appreciated by students (Ghanizadeh and Moafian, 2010; Nikoopour and Esfandiari, 2017). In other words, in the classroom, the so-called socioemotional skills (García Cabrero, 2018) are as or more important than cognitive skills, a statement that is in line with studies on emotional intelligence (Sucaromana, 2012), motivation (Naderi, 2009) and effective teaching (Nikoopour and Esfandiari, 2017), according to Méndez López (2021).
Social-emotional skills are necessary to relate to students, create a positive environment and cope with problems or situations that may arise, as well as to be able to make decisions when a problem arises (Dörnyei, 2019).
Emotions generated in an educational context are important, as they affect students' motivation, effort and interest in future academic tasks (Méndez López, 2012). In other words, when a positive emotion is felt, it generates positive thoughts and attitudes towards a class, subject or teacher.
In this thematic section of RNLAEL, the editor seeks to present results of recent or ongoing projects on:
- Terminology and definition of socioemotional in relation to language teaching. New contributions from psychology and education.
- Analysis of the importance assigned to socio-emotional skills in language teaching (first, second, foreign and host languages).
- How to plan the teaching of an additional language including socio-emotional skills, understood in a broad sense and considering different conceptual frameworks.
- The challenges and limitations of including the socio-emotional dimension in language teaching and learning.
- Empirical studies on the influence of socioemotional factors on classroom performance, motivation, effort and/or interest.
- Analysis of didactic materials for language teaching in relation to the inclusion of socioemotional aspects.
- New technologies and AI for the development of socioemotional aspects in the language classroom.
Priority will be given to empirical studies of a qualitative, quantitative or mixed nature, as requested by RNLAEL. That is, it is expected that there will be a systematic collection of factual data and, through analysis and interpretation of the data, the authors will present objectively verifiable results on socioemotional issues in the language classroom (also culture and literature).
Proposals can be submitted in any of the RNLAEL working languages.
REFERENCES
Dörnyei, Z. (2019). Towards a better understanding of the L2 learning experience, the Cinderella of the L2 Motivational Self System. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 9(1), 19-30. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2019.9.1.2
García Cabrero, B. (2018). Las habilidades socioemocionales, no cognitivas o “blandas”: aproximaciones a su evaluación. Revista Digital universitaria 19(6). http://doi.org/10.22201/codeic.16076079e.2018.v19n6.a5
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind. The theory of multiple intelligences. Basic Books
Gardner, H. (2006). Five minds for the future. Harvard Business School Press.
Ghanizadeh, A., y Moafian, F. (2010). The role of EFL teachers’ emotional intelligence in their success. ELT Journal, 64(4), 424-435. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccp084
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence. Bantam Books.
Méndez López, M. M. (2021): Las habilidades socio-emocionales en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, Mextesol, 45(3), https://www.mextesol.net/journal/index.php?page=journal&id_article=23767
Naderi, N. (2009). The relationship between emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment in Iranian EFL teachers. Tesis doctoral. Bahounar University.
Nikoopour, J., y Esfandiari, N. (2017). The relationship between emotional, social, cultural, spiritual intelligence and EFL teachers’ teaching effectiveness. Journal of Language Teaching and Research 8(1), 138-148. http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0801.17
Sucaromana, U. (2012). Contribution to language teaching and learning: A review of emotional intelligence. English Language Teaching, 5(9), 54-58. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n9p54
