Journal of Critical Reviews

ISSN- 2394-5125 Vol 7, Issue 11, 2020

EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE: THEIR CORRELATION IN THE

CONVERSATIONAL SKILLS OF SELECTED COLLEGE STUDENTS
Emmanuel G. Morata
Education Department, Bulacan State University – Sarmiento Campus
San Jose del Monte City of Bulacan, Philippines

Received: 11.03.2020 Revised: 18.04.2020 Accepted: 12.05.2020

Abstract
This study was made to show the significant correlation, whether singly or in combination, of the emotional and social competencies of
the selected college students with their conversational skills. The regression and correlation analysis procedures were used to study the
relationships between the variables: the student-respondents' emotional and social competencies (independent) and conversational
skills (dependent). The regression results revealed that the paralinguistic elements of the conversational skills that included linguistic
competence, situational appropriateness, and operational effectiveness had no significant effect on emotional and social competencies
that included self-awareness , self-management , and social awareness. However, among all the other subcategories of the independent
and dependent variables, the relationship management and non-linguistic elements only were found significantly related to each other.
Since the level of relationship management was found to influence the non-linguistic elements of conversation skills significantly, the
researcher recommended a program which focused on the relationship management for administrative consideration.
Keywords: Emotional Competence, Social Competence, Conversational Skill, Regression Analysis, Correlation

© 2020 by Advance Scientific Research. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31838/jcr.07.11.32

INTRODUCTION
Observation indicated that most students would frequently
become nervous when asked to express themselves in English,
and inevitably succumb to non-participation in class discussions.
In a situation such as this, it is not only the communication skills
of the students that should be considered but, more importantly,
the reasons that caused their actions in such a manner.
Ultimately, they would generally come up with excuses such as
being scared or worried about making mistakes when asked to
justify why they did so, which, by the way, was often done in
Filipino.
The situation observation was where this study was originally
rooted as Cardenas (2014) stated that in the Second Language
Acquisition (SLA) field, the relationship between emotions and
motivation had not received adequate attention except for
research into second language emotional expressions. She
further argued that focusing on the relationship between
emotions, motivation, and the social context in which they were
found, it was argued that motivation levels, self-regulation, and
the social context in which learning occurred arbitrate the effects
of emotions on any language learning process. Supportive
interpersonal relationships-or their lack-in the social setting
should be considered.
Collie et al. (2017) examined the potential relationships between
the students' social and emotional abilities, encouragement,
commitment and achievement within an autonomy-supportive
atmosphere. Social and emotional competencies (SECs; for
example , social awareness, relationship skills) were central to
the social and emotional erudition of the learners. Her ongoing
research expanded her interpretation of SECs by considering
novel structures of psycho-educational literature: fundamental
psychological need for pleasure, resilience and academic
buoyancy. Importantly, when the SECs were taught efficiently, it
contributed to positive academic and non academic outcomes.
The researcher tried to better understand the conditions that
encourage SECs for students with the aim of promoting such
positive outcomes. Using social and emotional learning
perspectives, theory of self-determination and the broad-based
theory of positive emotions, it was proposed to construct an
autonomy-supportive environment as one that could promote
the SECs. It was also argued that by helping them in an
autonomy-supportive environment, encouragement, dedication
and achievement, SECs could be positively affected.
Consequently, the aim of this study was to significantly assess the
effects of emotional and social skills on the conversational skills
of selected college students at Bulacan State University –
Sarmiento Campus in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan. This research
focused primarily on finding data that would show respondents'
level of emotional skills , social skills, and conversational level.
Therefore, whether their conversational skills are significantly
impaired individually or in combination, the researcher would
like to find out about the respondents' emotional and social
competence.
Objectives of the Study
1. To test the impact of emotional and social competence on the
conversational skills of selected Bulacan State University
college students - Sarmiento Campus in San Jose del Monte,
Bulacan.
2. Determine the extent of mental and social maturity of the
respondents as they view themselves. To identify the level of
conversational skills of the student-respondents based on
the result of their instructor’s assessment.
3. To know if the respondents’ emotional and social
competence singly or in combination significantly affect their
conversational skills.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Emotional intelligence is the capacity to recognize one's own and
other's feelings, to affirm one 's self and effectively resolve
emotions between oneself and others. Bresnik (2004 ) revealed,
as Shahhosseini (2012) cited, that emotional and social
intelligence made the difference between a highly effective
leader and an average one. It helps managers and professionals
create a competitive advantage for their business by enhancing

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 EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE: THEIR CORRELATION IN THE CONVERSATIONAL SKILLS OF SELECTED
COLLEGE STUDENTS
efficiency, progress, and teamwork, using time and resources
successfully, and building motivation and morality. The
acquisition of emotional and social skills is based on emotional
intelligence, which contributes to the efficiency of operations at
work.
Brienza (2002 ) emphasized that emotional intelligence is crucial
to high performance at all levels, particularly for exceptional
leadership, a different way of being smart. Emotional intelligence
is the power that knows one another's feelings, and effectively
handles emotions within one's self and relationships. It is far
more than just being "sensitive" or being sympathetic.
Goleman (2016), an authority on emotional intelligence, found
out that self-awareness is composed of precision , flexibility and
confidence. In short, self-awareness is about realizing the
emotions, strengths and weaknesses of one's self and a strong
sense of being.
The work conducted by Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, associate
professor at Russia's Tomsk State University and published in
2016 in the journal Ethology, Ecology and Evolution, with Lewis
Carroll 's title borrowed from the novel "Self-consciousness:
behind the glass and what dogs find there" could strengthen the
methodology by validating these animal behavior experiments.
Burckle (2008) believed ego-consciousness had a strong
understanding of your personality, including abilities,
shortcomings, thoughts , beliefs, motives, and emotions. Self-
awareness helps you to consider others, how they currently
perceive you, your behavior and your reactions to them.Lloyd
(2001), stressed creating self-awareness through practices to
focus one 's attention on the specifics of their personality and
actions. Reading a book doesn't teach the reader enough. When
people are reading they focus their attention on the philosophical
ideas of the book. They may gain an abstract understanding of
the self-awareness ideas of a book but that's not the same thing.
With one 's attention in a book they practice not paying attention
to their behaviour, feelings and personality.
Nel (2004) showed that self-management automatically brings
the firm to the organizational assembly. Individual colleagues,
committed to their personal commercial purpose, are largely
responsible for coordinating their partnerships. Its intimate,
commercial mission is its "immediate superior." The managerial
responsibility rests with one's associate.
Planning, arranging, hiring, directing and supervising activities.
Murensky (2004) claimed that true self-management is more
than just a series of business "flavor of the month" trends; it is a
fundamental shift in people's perception of human organizations,
management , and organizational strategy. They can talk about
workplace equality, and they will talk about something that is
part of self-management, but they don't really talk about self-
management; they can talk about employee empowerment, and
they'll talk about something that's important to self-
management, but employee empowerment alone doesn't get
them self-management.
Sala (2001) affirmed that, in essence, self-management is an
administrative model in which a manager's traditional roles
(planning , organizing, managing, hiring and directing) are
chased out to all respondents of the company rather than only a
handful of individuals. Organization members are individually
responsible for forming their alliances, organizing their events,
coordinating their actions with other stakeholders, securing the
resources necessary to achieve their task and, where applicable,
taking disciplinary measures with respect to other participants.
Journal of critical reviews
Sergio (2001) said self-management is a vital ability that will
support people throughout their lives. It involves setting targets
and managing your time. Building on their motivation and
attention skills can help them conquer procrastination lure.
Effective self-management helps one avoid stress and gives them
more opportunities to engage in fun campus activities. The self-
regulation is a key skill in self-management. Self-regulation
includes individuals tracking, regulating, and managing aspects
of their own learning.
According to Goleman (2011), the skills associated with social
awareness are: empathy—taking into account the other person's
feelings, interests, and concerns; organizational awareness—the
ability to recognize policy within an organization and how it
affects people working inside it; and service—the ability to
recognize and respond to the needs of others. Knowing social
conditions means that you carefully consider what people want,
and that you intend to interact with them in a way that satisfies
that need.
Williams (2008 ) stated that targets and end goals are expected
to be achieved as a leader, and it is important to do all they can to
do that efficiently and productively. And while some might
perceive spending time empathizing with others as contrary to
achieving goals, a manager's role in building an empowered,
cohesive, and successful team is crucial to that.
Herrera (2009 ) argued that the central concept of emotional
boundaries is that people are responsible for their own emotions
and not the emotions of others. Empathizing with others can be
difficult if they do not necessarily express their feelings or even
believe in the situations that they are true. In emotional and
challenging scenarios, it can take quite a lot of actualisation-
control.
Goleman (2004 ) indicated that the management of relationships
is a strategy where an company and its audience maintain a
consistent level of commitment. Connection management can be
between a company and its customers (customer relationship
management) or between a company and other companies
(business relationship management). Social interaction
management is a concentration of the financial and investment
industries as an implication of characterizing potential cross-
sales of products and services. Relationship management serves
as a method for identifying future cross-sales of goods and
services in the financial and investment sectors. It involves
defining, evaluating and maintaining relationships with people
inside and outside the team, and strengthening them through
feedback and coaching. It also expresses one 's capacity to
empathize, persuade and lead.
Many men. According to Landres (2005), the skills associated
with relationship management are: 1) Power — their ability to
create consensus and gain the respect of others by being able to
concentrate on what is important to others; 2) Leadership — the
individual that others want to follow; 3) Improving Others —
identifying the strengths of others and presenting opportunities
to improve them; 4) Communications — the skills of others.
In his research article entitled Conversational Skills, Lucanus
(2017 ) described it as essential for students that communication
skills are crucial to a student's academic performance and
possible career prospects. In addition , learners must possess not
only technical knowledge but also the skills needed to develop
their potential prospects for learning and jobs.
Andro (2014) said a person learns at home the basics of the right
to dialogue. By teaching students how to interlink with peers as
well as with teachers, the learning environment takes this
learning a bit greater. Level of communication in student life will
later decide career statements in life.
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COLLEGE STUDENTS
De Villa (2015 ) believed that the foundation of effective problem
solvers for students is that they mastered the art of effectively
organizing , planning and providing oral presentations.
Communicative interaction involves real-time meetings, video
recordings, and interviews, with additional visual aids including
handouts and power points.
According to Bryant (2009), active group engagement by
developing his language skills will transform a student into a
successful communicator. In addition, a leadership role on the
personal profile of a student in an academic setting would be a
major benefit.
In his study entitled Investigating the Relationship between
Communication Skills, Social Competence and Emotion
Management Skills of Pre-school kids in Turkey, Department of
Pre-school Education, Marmara University, Stanbul, Turkey, B.
Dağal (2017) studied dependent variable affiliation;
communication skills and independent variables; social skills and
emotional regulations.
RESEARCH METHODS
In this study a descriptive correlation design was used to define
the levels of social and emotional competency and conversational
skills among selected Bulacan State University – Sarmiento
Campus students. The descriptive method was appropriate, since
its objective was to describe an existing situation only. Similarly,
for this analysis a correlation study was a must to determine how
variables were naturally linked in the real world without any
attempt by the researcher to modify or allocate causation
between them. Apart from that, it tried to evaluate the effects of
the consciousness of the respondents on the significance of the
emotional and social state of being in achieving a certain level of
conversational skill.
Regression and correlation analysis procedures were used
separately to study the relationships between variables: the
emotional (independent) and conversational (dependent)
competence of the student-respondents and another for their
social skills and conversational abilities. Consequently, the
former was chosen to estimate the value of the independent
variable in relation to the value of the dependent variable while
the latter was maximized to calculate the strength of a
relationship between the two.
The researcher used two standardized tools: 1) the Emotional
and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI), a user guide for
accredited practitioners developed and used by HayGroup, a
global management consulting firm that works with leaders to
turn strategy into reality; and 2) Brian's Conversational Skills
Rating Scale (CSRS), an interpersonal teaching assessment.
ESCI consisted of four separate areas: actualization, awareness ,
social knowledge , self-management, and skills management
covering 12 capacities including emotional self-awareness,
emotional self-control, performance orientation, positive
attitude, adaptability, empathy, organizational awareness,
impact, trainer and advisor, crisis management, inspiring
leadership , and teamwork. It was a research checklist
established by average practitioners to evaluate 12 skills and
abilities which make excellent discernment.
The ESCI measured behavioral displays by individuals through
their interactions, both personal and social. A group of 20
Brazilian managers from a large consumer retail business were
twice tested on the ECI during the study reliability studies
conducted with the ESCI, with seven months between tests (Sala,
2001a).
This time span was larger than usually suggested (Anastasi,
1982) and in tests the executives engaged in an EI
implementation program to be able to view the findings with
caution. While not specifically related to the exact nature of the
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subjects, the same instrument is supposed to assess what the
researcher was looking for: emotional and social competency of
the students. Therefore, given that, more work is required to be
carried out in order to build the university's own version of the
said instrument.
The respondents to the analysis were the 139 selected students
from the College of Education major in English at Bulacan State
University-Sarmiento Campus. Purposive sampling was
intentionally used, as those who took up the subject of oral
communication during the first semester of the academic year
2017-2018 were mainly those. Such a method was deemed
acceptable as it was a non-probability and samples were selected
based on population characteristics and objective of study.
The student-repondents included participants from three parts
of the above mentioned department. The researcher performed
his survey during their available schedule so as to prevent
conflict with their other subjects.
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
The researcher consolidated the data gathered from Emotional
and Social Competency Evaluation Sheet together with the
Conversational Skills Rating Scale wherein after being collected
they were tallied, and organized for the purpose of tabulation
and analysis.
The researcher utilized simple statistical tools such as frequency
distribution and mean to describe both the social and emotional
competence of the respondents and their conversational skills.
The former instrument, the ESCI, used the following value:
Rating Scale Range Descriptive
Evaluation
5 4.50-5.00 Very High
4 3.50-4.49 High
3 2.50-3.49 Average
2 1.50-2.49 Low
1 1.00-1.49 Very Low
Meanwhile, the data being gathered thru CSRS which was
assessed by the respective instructors of each section were
tabulated. The students’ performance as regard to their skills
was gathered by assigning grades using the following Likert
scale:
Rating Scale Range Descriptive
Evaluation
5 4.50-5.00 Excellent
4 3.50-4.49 Very Good
3 2.50-3.49 Good
2 1.50-2.49 Fair
1 1.00-1.49 Poor
The researcher used instruments that the panel members
approved to determine if this would match the respondents. It's
worth mentioning that correlation and regression were used to
determine the effects of the student-respondents' emotional and
social competence on their conversational abilities.
In order for the researcher to gather pertinent data for this
study, he started with collecting instruments that could be used
in connection with the independent and dependent variables.
The researcher chose standardized instruments and once
approved by the panelists, with some suggestions/revisions to fit
with the thesis under concern, he immediately reproduced 150
copies of them to distribute for the respondents. Out of the
prospect number of respondents, only 139 were maximized due
to the availability of the student-respondents.
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COLLEGE STUDENTS

The Level of the Respondents' Emotional and Social The Conversational Skills Rating Scale attempted to measure the
Competence speaking rate of the respondents, verbal competency,
articulation, verbal variety, duration, use of humor and/or
Since 2011, Hay Group, the company that developed Emotional stories, smiling and/or laughing, use of eye contact, interruption
and Social Inventory (ESCI) to assess its workers, has claimed of another's speaking turn, trembling or nervous twitching, use
that relational intelligence is the ability to recognize the feelings of time spea from a rater's point of view (usually a teacher who
of one and others, to empower oneself, and to effectively handle was an expert in the subject).
the feelings between oneself and others.
Table 2. Weighted Mean of Student-Respondents’
Via their expectations and those of their evaluators the ESCI Conversational Skills as Perceived by their Instructors
assessed the display of behaviors of individuals. That being said,
the researcher collected the data to show the respondent's Conversational Skills Weighted Mean
weighted mean of emotional and social expertise. Very
1. Paralinguistic Elements Mean 3.71 Good
Psychological maturity, which has two categories (self-
awareness and self-management), was first discussed for this to 2. Non-linguistic Elements Mean 3.46 Good
be achieved. Subsequently, the relational maturity consisted of Very
two more subcategories (relational knowledge and management 3. Language Competence Mean 3.58 Good
of relationships). 4. Situational Appropriateness Mean 3.45 Good
Very
Table 1. Weighted Mean of Student-respondents’ 5. Operational Effectiveness Mean 3.65 Good
Emotional and Social Competence as Perceived by Very
Themselves Conversational Skills Mean 3.57 Good

Emotional and Social Competence Weighted Mean The data in table 2 showed the students' level of conversational
Competence Weighted Mean Interpretation skills as based on the result of their rating scale sheet. It could be
recognized that the student-respondents' weighted means
Emotional
regarding paralinguistic elements (3.71), non-linguistic elements
Competence 3.91 High
(3.46), language competence (3.58), situational appropriateness
1. Self-awareness
(3.45), and operational effectiveness (3.65) further gained a
mean 4.07 High
conversational skills weighted mean of 3.57 which is classified as
2. Self-
very good.
management
mean 3.76 High
Through this study, the researcher found out that the
Social respondents belong to the high level category in terms of
Competence 3.70 High emotional competence (3.91) as well as social competence (3.70)
1. Social as perceived by themselves while their conversational skills
awareness mean 3.68 High (3.57) showed that they possessed a very good level based on the
2. Relationship result of their instructor's assessment.
management
mean 3.72 High The result of the regression revealed that conversational skills'
Emotional and paralinguistic elements, language skills, situational
Social appropriateness, and operational effectiveness had no significant
Competence impact on self-awareness , self-management , and social
WM 3.81 High awareness of emotional and social competence; but, of all other
subcategories of independent and dependent variables, only
It also highlighted the students' level of emotional and social relationship management and non-linguistic elements were
competence as based on the result of their evaluation sheet. As found significantly related with each other.
the researcher computed the weighted mean of emotional
competence (3.91) which was interpreted as high, he also Among all the possible pedagogical implications that had been
combined it with the weighted mean of social competence (3.70) encountered by the research in dealing with this study, the
to obtain its emotional and social competence weighted mean of following stood out to be very useful: cooperative learning,
3.81 that is consequently defined as high. One could observe that experiential learning; and learning conversations.
as compared with each other, the emotional competence of the
respondents was higher than their social competence. Such CONCLUSION
information could be attributed to the fact that most of the time, The participants had high cognitive and social skills. And it may
students were more comfortable in working all by themselves mean they had the ability to comprehend their own impulses and
rather than going with others just to accomplish a certain task their impacts on their performance. The student-respondents
provided by their instructors. showed a very good level of conversational skill which indicated
that they were better than others though not excellent in such
The Level of the Respondents' Conversational Skills field of conversational skill. Therefore, it could be an indication
The researcher used a standardized instrument, The that they were very good in terms of asking questions,
Conversational Skills Rating Scale (CSRS): Brian H. Spitzberg's encouragements or agreements, use of humor and stories, and
Instructional Evaluation of Interpersonal Competency with the speaking fluency. Self-awareness classified as the maximum in
aid of Thomas W. Adams III. It was composed of five sub- terms of its mean value and earned an explanation of "good" –
categories: paralinguistic elements, non-linguistic elements, indicating the participants were good at coping with their
language abilities, situational suitability and organizational emotional sensitivity which is likely due to the fact that they also
effectiveness. have the ability to recognize their own emotions and their impact
on their performance. Social awareness, specifically concerning
organizational consciousness, was placed as the lowest in rank as

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 EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE: THEIR CORRELATION IN THE CONVERSATIONAL SKILLS OF SELECTED
COLLEGE STUDENTS

it received a mean value of 3.44 which eventually made it

classified as "average." There was a probability that the pupil-
respondents exuded an average level of their ability to sense the
emotions and perspectives of others, to take an active stake in
their concerns, and to collect indications of what was being felt
and thought. Among all the factors under emotional and social
competence and conversational skills, only relationship
management and non-linguistic elements had a significant
relationship. Thus, it could be said that the student-respondents'
ability to have a positive impact on others, persuading or
convincing others to gain their support affected their non-
linguistic ability.

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