Extroversion, Anxiety, and Risk Taking on the Learning of Spoken English at University Cas

325 Pages·2015·2.81 MB·English

Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Algerian
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
University Mentouri Bros. Constantine
Faculty of Letters and Languages
Department of Letters and the English Language

The Effects of Personality Variables; Extroversion,
Anxiety, and Risk Taking on the Learning of Spoken
English at University
Case Study: Second Year Students at the English
Department, University Mentouri Bros, Algeria

Thesis submitted to the department of English in candidacy for the degree of Doctorat
3éme Cycle LMD in Applied Language Studies

By: Miss Meriem BOUHENIKA Supervised by: Pr. Hacéne SAADI
Board of Examiners
Chairman: Prof. Hacéne HAMADA (E.N.S. Constantine)
Supervisor: Prof. Hacéne SAADI (University Mentouri Bros. Constantine)
Member: Prof. Said KESKES (University of Sétif 2)
Member: Prof. Samir LARABA (University Mentouri Bros. Constantine)
Member: Prof. Riad BELOUAHEM (University Mentouri Bros. Constantine)

2014 - 2015

i
Dedications

This thesis is dedicated to my dear parents who help me along my path to learn
and succeed.

It is also dedicated to my lovely brothers, sisters, nephews, and niece, who pray
most of the time for me, may Allah bless them.

The dedication also extends to my intimate precious friends, my relatives, my
teachers, colleagues, and students.

This work is finally dedicated to you, dearest reader.

ii
Acknowledgments

First of all and more importantly, I would like to thank "Allah" who guide
and give me the patience and capacity for reaching this level of knowledge and
competence
I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Pr. Hacéne SAADI, who gave me
assistance and patience. I would like to thank him for the academic guidance, the
fruitful criticism, the encouragement, and mostly for the moral support he used to
provide with once things went at worst.
I would like to thank all the staff of the English Department, University of
Constantine One who helped me to support my dissertation with efficient
documents and advice, and to the students who co-operate effectively in this
research by answering kindly the questionnaire, to my dear friends, teachers,
colleagues namely Feratha Mouna, Hamani Nesrine, Krisse Ismahene, Boulahlibe
Assia, Hadjer Belloute, Mouhamed Lakhel Ayat, Fouad Bouabdallah, Radia, and
to many other people who always kept warming me up while I was deeply
hopeless conducting the present research. I would also like to thank all the
members of the board of examiners who have kindly accepted to examine this
dissertation.
There is quite a lot to say, but words fail to express all my gratitude to my
family members who support my nervousness, impatience; believe in my
capacities and dreams; to all those who were behind the elaboration of this work.

iii
Abstract

This study attempts to investigate the effects of some personality variables on the learning of
spoken English at the university level. Extroversion/introversion, anxiety, and risk
taking/inhibition are the main personality traits covered along this dissertation. The aim of the
present research is to show the possible relationship of the afore-mentioned personality
features and the spoken English proficiency with the hypothesis that the more students are
extrovert, non-anxious and risk takers the better oral performance they can achieve and,
therefore, the native-like proficiency they will gain. As far as the data-gathering tools are
concerned, two questionnaires are administered to 112 students to determine their
extroversion tendency and anxiety level respectively; a number of classroom tasks are used to
find out the risky and inhibited learners in the oral sessions. Furthermore, the classroom
observation is a necessary step because all of data-collection is classroom-oriented and the
oral exam grades are totally needed to determine every student’s spoken English level.
Throughout data analysis, it is confirmed that the three personality variables are positively
correlated with oral English proficiency; then, the research participants are classified
according to their personality traits as extrovert/non-anxious/risk takers;
introvert/anxious/inhibited, for instance. Henceforth, the obtained results prove that the
students who are extrovert/non-anxious/risk takers are the proficient English speakers
according to the classroom observation data analysis and the exam grades. Therefore, the
more students are extrovert/non-anxious/risk takers the better-spoken English will be
performed.

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List of Abbreviations
Anx.→ anxious
CO→ Classroom Observation
EFL → English as Foreign Language
ESP→ English for Specific Purposes
Extro → Extrovert
FL → Foreign Language
Inhi→ inhibited
Intro → Introvert
FLT→ Foreign Language Teaching
LAD → Language Acquisition Device
LL→ Language Learning
LAB → Language Aptitude Battery
LMD → License, Master Doctorate
MBTI → Myer-Briggs Type Indicator
MLAT → Modern Language Aptitude Test
Nanx →Non-anxious
OE → Oral Expression
Q → Question
(r) → Correlation
RT→ Risk Taker
SE → Spoken English
SEL → Spoken English learning
SLA → Second Language Acquisition
SLL → Second Language Learning
TBLT→ Task-Based Language Teaching
TEFL→ Teaching English as a Foreign Language
WE→ Written Expression
L2→ second language

v
List of Tables
Table Title Page
Table 1 Students’ Choice to Study English 148
Table 2 Students’ Goals from Learning English 149
Table 3 Students’ Need of Spoken English 149
Table 4 Whether Students Like the OE Module 150
Table 5 Students’ Reasons to not Like OE 150
Table 6 What Makes Some Students Good Participants in the OE Class! 151
Table 7 Which English Students Prefer 152
Table 8 Students’ Topic Preferences 152
Table 9 How Students Prefer OE Class 153
Table 10 Students’ Preferences for Lecture Preparation 153
Table 11 Students Preferable Way of Working in Class 154
Table 12 How Students Prefer their Teacher to Be in Class 155
Table 13 Students’ Opinion about OE Teaching Time 156
Table 14 Students’ Age 158
Table 15 Students’ Sex 159
Table 16 Students’ Preference to Mix Socially 160
Table 17 Students’ Comfort 161
Table 18 Students’ Preferences While Mixing Socially 162
Table 19 Students’ Preferences in Initiating Relations 163
Table 20 Students’ Speaking with Strangers 164
Table 21 Students’ Preference in Spending Free Time 165
Table 22 Students’ Motivation to be Approved by Others 166
Table 23 Students’ Feeling of Being the Center of Attention 167
Table 24 Students’ Self-strength 168
Table 25 Students’ Decision Making 169
Table 26 Students’ Communicative Skills 170
Table 27 Students’ Behaviour in a Party 171
Table 28 Students Enjoying Talking about Themselves 172
Table 29 Students’ Working in Class 173
Table 30 Students’ Talk Preferences 173
Table 31 Students’ Good Oral Production 174
Table 32 Students’ Objective While Speaking 175
Table 33 Students’ States of Being in OE Class 176
Table 34 Students’ Preferences of Preparing Lessons 177
Table 35 Students’ State of Being while Speaking 179
Table 36 Students’ Physical and Psychological State in the OE 180
Class
Table 37 Students’ Daily Anxiety 181
Table 38 Students’ Rate of Anxiety 182
Table 39 Students’ Worry if they are Asked to Talk 183
Table 40 Students’ Anxiety about the Difficulty of Understanding 184
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the Teacher
Table 41 Students’ Anxiety about Lack of Preparation 185
Table 42 Anxiety Impact on Students 186
Table 43 Students Getting Upset 187
Table 44 Students’ Anxiety about Speaking English Elsewhere 188
Table 45 Students’ Anxiety after a Well Preparation 189
Table 46 Students’ Feelings about Others 190
Table 47 Students’ Fear of Being Laughed at 191
Table 48 Students’ Care of Making Mistakes 192
Table 49 Students’ Anxiety from the OE Class 193
Table 50 Students’ Anxiety from Extra Oral Sessions 194
Table 51 Students’ Test Anxiety 195
Table 52 Students’ Anxiety in Other Situations 196
Table 53 Anxiety Negative Impact on Student’s Oral Performance 197
Table 54 Students Risk Taking in the Idiomatic Expression Task 198
Table 55 Students Risk Taking during the Problem Solving Task 199
Table 56 Students Risk Taking during the Playing Cards Task 200
Table 57 Students Risk Taking during the Personal Qualities Task 201
Table 58 Students Risk Taking during the Movie Narrating Task 202
Table 59 Students Risk Taking during the Story Completion Task 203
Table 60 Classroom Observation while Testing 207
Extroversion/Introversion Dimension
Table 61 Classroom Observation while Testing Anxiety 211
Table 62 Initials Clarification 215
Table 63 Classroom Observation while Testing Risk Taking /Inhibition 217
Dimension
Table 64 Extroversion/Introversion and Spoken English 222
Proficiency Scores
Table 65 The Computation of the Correlation (r )of the Extroversion and 225
the SEP using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient
Table 66 Anxiety and SEP Scores 229
Table 67 The Computation of the Correlation (r )of Anxiety and the SEP 233
using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient
Table 68 Risk Taking and SEP Scores 236
Table 69 The Computation of the Correlation (r ) of Risk Taking and the 240
SEP using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient
Table 70 The Students’ Personality Categories 245
Table 71 The Extrovert/non-anxious/Risk Taking 247
Table 72 The Extrovert/anxious/Risk Taker 249
Table 73 The Extrovert/non-anxious/inhibited 249
Table 74 The Extro/anxious/inhibited 250
Table 75 The Introvert/non-anxious/Risk taker 251
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Table 76 The Intro/anxious/Risk Taker 252
Table 77 The Introvert/non-anxious/inhibited 253
Table 78 The Introvert/anxious/inhibited 253

viii
List of Figures

Figure Title Page
Figure 1 Students’ Age 158
Figure 2 Students’ Sex 159
Figure 3 Students’ Preferences to Mix Socially 160
Figure 4 Students’ Comfort 161
Figure 5 Students’ Preferences while Mixing Socially 162
Figure 6 Students’ Preferences in Initiating Relations 163
Figure 7 Students’ Speaking with Strangers 164
Figure 8 Students’ Preference in Spending Free Time 165
Figure 9 Students’ Motivation to be Approved by Others 166
Figure 10 Students’ Feeling of Being the Center of Attention 167
Figure 11 Students’ Self-strength 168
Figure 12 Students’ Decision Making 169
Figure 13 Students’ Communicative Skills 170
Figure 14 Students’ Behaviour in a Party 171
Figure 15 Students Enjoying Talking about Themselves 172
Figure 16 Students’ Working in Class 173
Figure 17 Students’ Talk Preferences 174
Figure 18 Students’ Good Oral Production 175
Figure 19 Students’ Objective while Speaking 176
Figure 20 Students’ States of Being in OE Class 177
Figure 21 Students’ Preferences of Preparing Lessons 178
Figure 22 Students’ State of Being while Speaking 122
Figure 23 Students’ Physical and Psychological State in the OE Class 180
Figure 24 Students’ Daily Anxiety 181
Figure 25 Students’ Rate of Anxiety 182
Figure 26 Students’ Worry if they are Asked to Talk 183
Figure 27 Students’ Anxiety about the Difficulty of Understanding the 184
Teacher
Figure 28 Students’ Anxiety about Lack of Preparation 185
Figure 29 Anxiety Impact on Students 186
Figure 30 Students Getting Upset 187
Figure 31 Students’ Anxiety about Speaking English Elsewhere 188
Figure 32 Students’ Anxiety after a Well Preparation 189
Figure 33 Students’ Feelings about Others 190
Figure 34 Students’ Fear of Being Laughed at 191
Figure 35 Students’ Care of Making Mistakes 192
Figure 36 Students’ Anxiety from the OE Class 193
Figure 37 Students’ Anxiety from Extra Oral Sessions 194
Figure 38 Students’ Test Anxiety 195
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Figure 39 Students’ Anxiety in Other Situations 196
Figure 40 Anxiety Negative Impact on Student’s Oral Performance 197
Figure 41 Students Risk Taking in the First Task 198
Figure 42 Students Risk Taking during the Second Task 199
Figure 43 Students Risk Raking during the Third Task 200
Figure 44 Students Risk Taking during the Fourth Task 201
Figure 45 Students Risk Taking during the Fifth Task 202
Figure 46 Students Risk Taking during the Sixth Task 203
Figure 47 Scatter Plot of Extroversion/Into and Spoken English Proficiency 227
Correlation
Figure 48 Scatter Plot of Anxiety and SEP Correlation 235
Figure 49 Correlation between Risk Taking and Spoken English Proficiency 242
Figure 50 The Students’ Personality Categories 246

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