Major Differences In High-School Students' Personality And Their Implications For Foreign Language Learning And Teaching

Recent research has shown that the success of second language (L2) learners is due not only to cognitive factors such as language aptitude, but also to affective, motivational, personality, and demographic factors (Carroll, 1990; Ehrman & Oxford, 1995). The individual differences that exist among L2 learners have been focused on in order to better understand the factors that shape the language learning process. Research into individual learner differences and their relationships to language learning strategies is a growing area (Bacon, 1992; Wen, 1996; Wang, 1996). In addition to age, gender, motivation, and language learning strategies, one major individual variable is personality type or learning style (Carrel, 1996).Researchers have sought to investigate some universal properties of language learning. Meanwhile, they have devoted much effort to individual learner differences. An overview of the research shows that personality is a neglected yet significant factor in L2 learning. The differences in personality types and traits are one of the most important factors which result in variation in the success of language learning. Language learners of different personality type have their own different learning focus and neglect. Once the learners' personality type is identified, their neglect and focus of attention will be confirmed, which is especially important in decision -making. By illustrating the differences in personality types and traits that affect on the foreign language learning and teaching, the paper proposes that much attention be paid to these factors in our English language teaching. The research of students' personality differences has great implications for language teaching. Teachers should take students' personality differences into consideration. Different teaching methods should be adopted with accordance to different students. On the other hand, teacher should help students to be high-motivated and to be self-autonomous learners by identifying their learning features and choosing appropriate learning strategies. Thus teachers can improve their teaching efficiency.This paper is divided into five parts.The first part includes a brief introduction to the reasons and the significance of the research, a review of the academic research of second language learning.The second part defines the fundamental concepts, introduces several usual methods of classifying characters, and analyses the personality types and character traits of high school students in detail from several aspects such as their attitudes to studies, will, feelings and senses.The third part is the emphasis of this paper in which a rational analysis and an argument are done.The fourth part analyses different personality factors resulting in the effect on English teaching, giving some appropriate teaching strategies and suggestions. Meanwhile, it focuses on how to do individuality teaching for teachers in the practice of English class.The fifth part summarizes the paper. The development of individuality is what we intend to achieve in language in language teaching, which demands teachers pay more attention to the individual differences and try to find more and better methods to promote the development of students' individuality.