A Comparative Investigation into Speaking Anxiety of Extroverted and Introverted Iranian EFL Learners

Journal of Teaching English Lnaguage Studies

مقاله 1، دوره 5، شماره 2، اسفند 2016، صفحه 7-23   

نویسندگان

Arezoo Rezvani؛ Bahador Sadeghi

Islamic Azad University, Takestan Branch

چکیده

This study sought to investigate the connection between foreign language anxiety and
extroversion and introversion personality types. The way adult language learners
conceptualize their fear of negative evaluation as a component of foreign language anxiety
construct was also investigated. To this end, 50 Iranian adult language learners were selected
as participants of the study and divided into two groups of extroverts and introverts. The
grouping based on extroversion/introversion were handled using Eysenck Personality
Questionnaire (EPQ). Half of the students who had the highest score in extroversion sub-scale
were put into extroversion group and the remaining half were put into introvert group. To
measure level of students’ anxiety, Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS)
was utilized. To probe the possible differences between introverts and extroverts in terms of
language anxiety, statistical technique of T-test was run. Results showed that extroverts were
significantly less anxious than introverts. With respect to the way Iranian foreign language
learners conceptualize fear of negative evaluation, a semi-structured interview was carried out
with 20 participants. After collecting students’ responses to the interview questions, content
analysis was conducted to find the recurrent patterns. It was revealed that students had fear of
negative evaluation from both teachers and classmates. Error correction and incongruence
between teacher’s expectation and student’s expectations regarding language performance
were among the aspects of fear of negative evaluation.

کلیدواژه‌ها

EFL learners؛ introverted؛ extroverted؛ speaking anxiety؛ Stress

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