Emotion and cognition are two wings of the same bird: Insights into academic emotion regulation, critical thinking, self-efficacy beliefs, academic resilience, and academic engagement in Iranian EFL context

•Although academic emotion Regulation (AER), critical thinking (CT), Self-efficacy belief (S-EB), academic resilience (AR), and academic engagement (AE) may all play a part in higher education, the connections between them have not been thoroughly investigated.•AER give students a sense of equilibrium in their academic lives, allowing them to more objectively assess their own learning process.•Students' psychological well-being has a salutary effect on their sense of self, engagement, and their outlook on their own monitoring and metacognitive abilities.•CT is an excellent predictor of S-EB, AR, and AE among the EFL university learners.•EFL students who engaged in self-reflective and CT practices were better able to identify their areas of academic strength and improvement. This allowed these pupils to make significant strides toward a more effective routine.