Developing a scale for social-emotional foreign language learning in university contexts

A growing body of research lays emphasis on the necessity of enhancing the social and emotional skills of students for their successful cognitive and behavioral development (CASEL, 2012; Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinge, 2011). In line with this, researchers have developed numerous instruments to assess students' social and emotional competences. However, these instruments have been generally designed for children in primary, secondary and high schools, where social and emotional skills are often seen as part of the learning process, not for the young adults at the university level particularly learning a foreign language. From this point of view, the current study tries to fill this gap by developing an appropriate instrument to assess university students' social and emotional competences while learning a foreign language. Data was gathered using four different samples of 1613 preparatory school students from a university in total. Principal component analysis of the Social-Emotional Foreign Language Learning Scale (SEFLLS) yielded a three-factor structure: Self-regulation, Social Relations and Decision-Making. In accordance with confirmatory factor analyses, it was observed that the model fit indices were acceptable. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.