English as a foreign language educator and researcher (Spain). Eva Rocío Díaz Pinto Eva is doing her Doctoral Thesis at the University of Huelva about willingness to communicate in class and its relationship with the emotional engagement of students. She has been an English teacher in Secondary Education for 8 years Session Information: Emotional Intelligence Promoting Secondary Students´ Willingness to Communicate. Key Concepts: Interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities developed in secondary students. This presentation examines the potential value of the emotional intelligence teaching in an EFL classroom as a useful method to help students to promote their willingness to communicate and to improve their communicative competence. One of the main aims stated in the Foreign Language Curriculum in Spain is the development of students' communicative competence. However, due to discipline problems or simply teacher and student burnout, the oral skills are neglected in many classrooms and individual grammar and vocabulary activities are essentially the tasks that the secondary EFL learner faces.