English proficiency and academic achievement in relation to extraversion: a preliminary study

Abstract

There is a clear contradiction between the predictions of psychologists and applied linguists regarding the relationship between extraversion and learning. Psychologists claim that extraversion is a disadvantage for learning on the grounds that an extravert has less cortical arousal, is more easily inhibited and has a limited long‐term memory. In contrast, many applied linguists predict that extraversion is an advantage for learning a second/foreign language, based on the assumption that an extravert elicits more input and produces more output. To resolve this conflict, forty Iranian, non‐English Major Ph.D. students who took the TOEFL and IELTS were given the Persian restandardised form of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire twice. They were also asked to report their grade point averages (GPAs) for their school diploma, Bachelor's and Master's degrees. A negative but non‐significant relationship was found between extraversion and GPAs. An even weaker but still negative relationship emerged between extraversion and both the totals and sub‐scores for TOEFL and IELTS. Thus extraversion may not help in developing either linguistic skills or even communicative skills in such an Iranian EFL situation where there is no exposure to English and where non‐communicative teaching methods are used in English classes. This preliminary research led to our main study (Kiany 1997d) which includes three different subsamples – no English exposure, exposure to English only in classes, and exposure to the language in a natural English‐speaking environment – as well as a much wider variety of measurements of English proficiency.

Motivation and Personality Traits of TESL Postgraduate Students towards the Use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Second Language Teaching

“…This implies that ICT use has nothing to do with personality traits meaning that there should be no worries whether a teacher with any type of personality traits is probably in advantage for using the computer technology throughout his/her class practices. Although the debate still exists on the existence of difference in performance of learners/teachers who have diverse personality traits (Kiany, 1997;Stern, 1983), the study compatible with other studies indicate no such case.…”

“…It is believed that there is a contradiction between the predictions of psychologists and applied linguists in respect to the relationship between extroversion and learning or in general. Yet, it is not clearly known which personality type is in advantage (Kiany, 1997). Such beliefs that extroversion may help or hinder developing second/foreign language skills as Stern (1983) maintains may be only half-truth, but they provide the stimulus for systematic investigations such as this current research.…”

“…Although this might be true in some instances, there exists a contradiction between the predictions of psychologists and applied linguists in respect to the relationship between extroversion and learning or teaching in general. There is still a debate to know which personality type is in advantage (Kiany, 1997). In terms of computer technology, Smith and Munday (1995) considered personality as a predictor of teachers' willingness towards computer integration in the classrooms.…”

A Survey Study: The Correlation between Introversion/Extroversion and Oral English Learning Outcome

“…One is that extroversion is positively correlated with Basic Interpersonal Communication Skill (BICS); the other is that introversion help learners develop cognitive academic language ability (CALP) faster than extroverts (Ellis, 1994, p.520). However, as are shown in the findings of the previous researches (Rossier, 1975;Busch, 1982;Carrell, Prince & Astika, 1996;Kiany, 1998;Dewaele & Furnham, 1999;Kubota, 2003), whether introversion/extroversion is directly related to success in language learning cannot be concluded (Arnold, 1999). This paper is to study, in the context of an inland city of China, where English is learned as a foreign language, whether introversion/extroversion of learners is correlated with the outcome of their spoken English ability, and discuss the reasons contributing to the study result.…”

School Performance, Cultural, Social and Personality Factors and Their Relationships with Majoring in Foreign and First Languages

“…In a somewhat similar study, Kiany (1998) employed the Persian version of the 100-item Eysenck Personality Questionnaire validated by Hosseini, Mehryar and Razavi (1973) and Nikjoo (1982) to explore the relationship between the average GPAs obtained on diploma, bachelor and Master degrees and extraversion. These average GPAs were obtained from 40 non-English major postgraduate Iranian students who were doing their PhD in England.…”