The Impact of Extroversion and Introversion Personality Types on EFL Learners' Writing Ability.

Jafarpour Boroujeni, Ali Akbar; Roohani, Ali; Hasanimanesh, Asiyeh

The way we learn is very much affected by our personality. Practitioners have claimed that perception of personality type can help teachers to understand the reason why students perform differently in class activities (Wilz, 2000). Regarding the significant role of different personality types in language learning in general and in mastering L2 writing in particular, the present study aims at investigating the possible impact of extrovert/introvert personality types of Iranian EFL learners on their writing performance in terms of its different subsets (i.e., content, organization, language, mechanics, and vocabulary). In so doing, 50 writing samples, elicited from 50 extroverted and introverted university students were collected and rated by the researchers using Jacobs, Zinkgraf, Wormuth, Hartfiel, and Hughey's (1981) analytic scoring scale. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance was run. Analysis of the results revealed that introverts significantly outperformed extroverts in all subsets except organization. This may be due to some of the introverts' personal characteristics that the extroverts lack, such as being careful, having more concentration in their solitude, and ability to generate much more ideas alone.

EXTRAVERSION; INTROVERSION; PERSONALITY; ENGLISH as a foreign language; LEARNING; WRITING

Theory & Practice in Language Studies (TPLS), 2015, Vol 5, Issue 1, p212

1799-2591

Academic Journal

10.17507/tpls.0501.29