| Many studies have found that learners' individual differences , especially learners' language learning strategies, play very important roles in their language learning process and even somehow lead to the success of their learning activities. There are many factors that influence the choice of learning strategies, for instance: learners' age, gender, personality traits, intelligence level, motivation, and so on.Studies done on language learning strategies have come to the same conclusion. That is, the use of language learning strategies can effectively improve learner's learning quality and thus consequently lead to their final success in foreign language learning. Thus the importance of language learning strategies has been agreed.As for learner's personality traits, one of the factors that influence the choice of learning strategies, many researchers think that extroverted learners will do better in acquiring basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS), while introverted learners will do better at developing cognitive academic language ability (CALP). Therefore there is a tendency for extroverts to under perform slightly compared to introverts, because extroverts have superior immediate recall, but poorer recall after a delay whereas introverts might code material more efficiently into long-term memory. In view of these findings, it has been predicted that introverts would have higher academic achievement than extroverts.Then what's the effect of learners' personality traits on their choices of learning strategies? Review of the literature showed that a small number of studies had been done to investigate the effect of learners' personality traits on their choices of learning strategies in higher vocational college and the correlation between them, not to mention that about students.Hence this paper attempts to study the effect of personality traits on the choices of learning strategies from a specific variable introversion/ extroversion in the context of Chinese non-English-majors in higher vocational college. Participants consisted of 113 first-year non-English-majors majoring in International Trade at Shandong Foreign Trade Vocational College. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventor for Language Learning (SILL) were administered as measures of personality types, language learning strategy preferences. Then the data is analyzed by using SPSS 13.0. Results of this analysis reveals that:1) All the participants in this research reported to have used some kinds of strategies at a medium level. Compensation strategy is the most frequently used strategy, followed by metacognitive and social strategies. Memory strategy is the least frequently used by participants in this study.2) Language proficiency (tested by examination scores) is positively correlated with language learning strategies, especially memory, cognitive, metacognitive, affective and social strategies. The higher strategy scores are, the higher level the language proficiency will be. However, English proficiency has no relationship with learners' personality traits.3) There is a strong association between personality types and language learning strategies and introverted students reported a higher frequency of use of language learning strategies (r=.118) than extroverts(r=.099). The introverts use compensation and affective strategies more than the extroverts do, while extroverts favored the use of social and cognitive strategies.The thesis is composed of four chapters:In Chapter One, literature is reviewed in terms of background and studies concerning the relationship between introversion/extroversion and language learning strategies.In Chapter Two, methodology of this study is presented including participants, instruments, data collection and analysis procedures.Chapter Three presents the results of data analysis and includes discussion on the introversion/extroversion distribution, the frequency of use of learning strategies and the correlation between introversion/extroversion and learning strategies.Chapter Four is the pedagogical implications of the present study for English teaching and English learners. In English teaching, all these factors influencing learning strategy preferences and test performance should be taken into account, At the same time, the introduction to learning strategies may be incorporated into teaching, so that the students' ability of self-teaching will be enhanced, which will result in the improvement of their language use proficiency. |
