Predicting Effects of Personality Traits, Self-esteem, Language Class Risk-taking and Sociability on Chinese University EFL Learners' Performance in English

Abstract

Although the interactive effects of different variables in language learning have increasingly become the focus of recent research, the interaction of such variables as personality traits, self-esteem, language class risk-taking and sociability has not been much investigated.Hence, the present study explored the predicting effects of these variables on Chinese EFL learners' performance in English at the tertiary level. A 68-item survey involving 934 firstyear undergraduate non-English majors revealed that: (1) the majority were moderately extroverted, moderately inclined to anxiety and fears, and moderately prone to be influenced by social desirability but tended to be dependent and gentle; the participants were moderately satisfied with themselves and believed they were good and worthy; and the majority were moderately risk-taking and sociable in English class, (2) personality traits, selfesteem, language class risk-taking and sociability were generally significantly correlated with one another and with the students' performance in English, and (3) overall self-esteem, language class risk-taking, language class sociability, and two personality variables -P (psychoticism) and L (lie) proved to be powerful predictors for the students' performance in English. As such, personality traits, self-esteem, language class risk-taking and sociability are important factors affecting language learning outcomes.

Tolerance of Ambiguity and the Linguistic Intervention Program

“…Contemporary research has demonstrated how the high level of cognitive structuration corresponded with the high level of communication skills and with the process of coping with stressful and demanding situations (Výrost, Ruisel, 2000, Bar-Tal andGuinote, 2002). Liu (2012) and Liu-Lu, Liu (2016) considered the factor of risk-taking in the process of learning a foreign language as one of the essential in the context of tolerance of ambiguity. They found out a significant influence of the factor of risk-taking on the performance of the university students in EFL.…”

“…Thus, research in the field of tolerance of ambiguity (Liu, 2012;Clarke, 2012;Stranovská et al, 2013;Sarmány-Schuller, 2014;Liu-Lu, Liu, 2016;Švecová, Pavlovičová, 2016; and others) represents a wide field of investigation, induction as well as deduction. Presumably, tolerance of ambiguity is a skill necessary for all foreign language teaching programs; it enhances natural foreign language communication as well as in-service teachers` foreign language self-esteem.…”

“…One of the ways how to make the process of education attractive and effective, is the integration of such teaching methods which focus on cognitive stimulation of intrinsic motivation and develop learner`s thinking flexibility, or their tolerance of ambiguity towards unaccepted phenomena, which learners come across during the lessons of foreign language every time. The research study set out to demonstrate the influence of the cognitive variable tolerance of ambiguity towards achievements in a foreign language production (Liu, 2012;Brown, 2000 and others). Furthermore, it examined the influence of the variable on the learner`s syntactic skill development: sentence structure production development, and overall sentence comprehension in a foreign language (Stranovská et al, 2013).…”

Self-Image Improvement and Iranian EFL Learners’ Oral Performance: Effects on Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency

“…Researchers have pointed to the relationship between and the effects of a number of these psychological constructs and the level of S/FL oral proficiency. To put it more clearly, studies have been done on the effects of or the relationship between English oral proficiency and self-confidence (Gurler, 2015;Juhana, 2012), learners' attitudes toward English (Norton & Toohey, 2001;Zeinivand, Azizifar, & Gowhary, 2015), self-esteem (Ahour & Hassanzadeh, 2015;Devi & Qiqiehi, 2016;Koosha, Ketabi, & Kassaian, 2011), anxiety (Mai, 2011;Woodrow, 2006), motivation (Ihsan, 2016;Juhana, 2012), shyness (Al Nakhalah, 2016;Ostovar, Safaee, & Sobhanifar, 2015), fear of making mistakes (Sato, 2003), personality types, introversion /extroversion (Mai, 2011;Meihua, 2012), and self-efficacy (Khatib & Maarof, 2015;Liu, 2013).…”

Stimulation of Creativity Potential and Ambiguity Tolerance as Effective Foreign Language Teaching Predictors

“…reprezentuje nepretržitú tvorbu, jedinečný a neopakovateľný obraz ľudskej kognície. Z toho dôvodu výskum v oblasti kreativity v cudzojazyčnej výučbe z kognitívneho pohľadu (Liu, 2012;Clarke, 2012;Stranovská a kol., 2013;Bírová, 2013;J. Henriksen, Mishra, Fisser, 2016, Müglová, Malá, Stranovská 2017 predstavuje neobmedzené pole pôsobnosti, bádania, dedukcií a indukcií.…”