On Relationships Among Extraversion/Introversion, Foreign Language Learning Strategies, And English As A Foreign Language Proficiency Of Senior High School Students

For several decades, researchers have shifted their attention from seeking the best teaching approaches to studying learners' individual differences. More and more researchers agree that the following are important variables in which individual learners may differ: intelligence, language aptitude, personality (such as extraversion/introversion, perseverance, and anxiety), learning strategies, and attitudes towards the target language and its native speakers (Liu Runqing, 2004). It indicates that the previous researches on these variables have proved to be helpful in understanding SLL process (Skehan, 1989).Based on the previous researches and the relevant theories, this study focuses on two of the above variables: personality (extraversion/introversion) and language learning strategies, and is aimed at exploring the relationships among these: the extraversion/introversion (E/I) tendencies of Chinese students, their proficiency in English as a foreign language (EFL) and their foreign language learning (FLL) strategies employment.A survey study has been made among 110 senior high school students. Two self-report questionnaires—Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and Foreign Language Learning Strategies Questionnaire, and one language proficiency test—the College Entrance Examination (in Shanghai) have been administrated to them, in order to identify the students' personality traits (E/I), their learning strategies and their foreign language proficiency.Seven hypotheses are formulated as the basis to explore potential relationships among E/I, EFL proficiency and FLL strategies. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS version 11.0) is used for the statistical analysis of the data, including frequencies and descriptives, correlations, independent-samples t-test and one-way ANOVA, which is used to test the null hypotheses. The findings are the following:The relationship between extraversion and EFL proficiency:(1) Extraversion negatively correlates with EFL proficiency at the level of 0.194 (p<.05).(2) There is significant difference between extraverts and introverts in the means of total score and sub-scores of reading, listening and translation. Introverts have higher mean scores in reading, listening, translation and total score.(3) There is significant difference between male extraverts and male introverts in the...