Teaching style and personality traits as predictors of socio-affective learning strategies: findings from translation studies students of a private Turkish university

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate to what extent the personality traits and perceived teacher autonomy support of university students related to their preferred affective and social language learning strategies. The study was carried out at an English-speaking private university in Ankara. The participants of the study were 102 students (65% female, 33% male, 2% other) studying Translation and Interpretation in English and French. Bivariate correlation analysis revealed that among students’ personality traits only agreeableness was positively related to students’ affective and social learning strategies. Furthermore, perceived-autonomy support was correlated to both affective and social learning strategies. According to hierarchical regression analysis, only perceived-autonomy support predicted affective learning strategies when both personality traits and perceived-autonomy support were considered as predictors. However, agreeableness personality trait and perceived-autonomy support both positively predicted students’ social learning strategies. The importance of students’ autonomy support for enhancing affective and social learning strategies is highlighted in the implications of the study for curriculum and instruction.