The influence of personality and anxiety on the oral performance of Japanese speakers of English

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between personality and anxiety characteristics of Japanese students and their oral performance in English. The participants were 73 native-speakers of Japanese who were studying English at various language schools in New Zealand. They were administered the Maudsley Personality Inventory, the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory, and a story-retelling task which was scored in terms of oral fluency, accuracy, complexity, and global impression. Significant correlations were found between extraversion and global impression scores, and state anxiety and clause accuracy scores. These findings suggest that participants who were more extraverted produced better global impressions during their oral performance, and those who were experiencing higher levels of state anxiety made more errors in their spoken use of clauses.

Foreign language anxiety and achievement: A study of primary school students learning English in China

“…lower self-confidence or an over concern about their ability). The finding of an inverse relationship between TA and FL achievement also aligns with previous research (Joy, 2013; Liu, 2007; Oya et al, 2004; Salehi & Marefat, 2014). TA has been argued to consume cognitive resources, such as attention and working memory, interfering with students’ exam preparation and concentration during the exam (Eysenck & Calvo, 1992).…”

“…Indeed, consistent with previous studies (Gregersen & Horwitz, 2002;Liu & Jackson, 2008), CA has been found to be negatively related to educational outcomes as students who report high CA present several characteristics which impede the progression of learning in the classroom, and ultimately achievement (e.g., lower self-confidence or an over concern about their ability). The finding of an inverse relationship between TA and FL achievement also aligns with previous research (Joy, 2013;Liu, 2007;Oya, Manalo, & Greenwood, 2004;Salehi & Marefat, 2014). TA has been argued to consume cognitive resources, such as attention and working memory, interfering with students' exam preparation and concentration during the exam (Eysenk & Calvo, 1992).…”

Modeling personality antecedents and second language self-efficacy constructs with emerging adults in Japan: Domain-specific matching for assessing global competence in applied contexts

“…This might be due to the commitment to study necessary to obtain high degrees of perceived competence in listening ability (e.g., strategy use and personal control; Graham, 2011 ) and self-monitoring needed to receptively engage in the reciprocal exchanges of intercultural communication. For S-SE, the strongest patterns of relationships are consistent with previous findings by Oya et al (2004) who observed relationships between Extraversion and Neuroticism with global impressions of oral performance. The S-SE findings also mirror those for Extraversion and speech production ( Dewaele and Furnham, 2000 ).…”

Reexamining L2 accent: How much can personality explain?

“…Extraversion, in turn, correlated positively with degree of foreign accent; learners who are more sociable, talkative, and outgoing tended to be perceived as having less foreign accent. his inding is in line with previous studies that obtained a similar relationship (e.g., Oya et al, 2004). he relatively unstructured format of the current task seems to have captured a relationship between extraversion and oral skills that some previous studies overlooked.…”