Extraversion-introversion and the oral performance of Koya University EFL students

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between the extraversion-introversion personality type tendencies of Iraqi college students and their oral proficiency in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). In this regard, the present study aims to reinvestigate the correlation between extraversion-introversion and EFL students' oral proficiency represented by fluency, accuracy, complexity, pronunciation, and global impression. So far, the findings in previous studies examining the correlation between extraversion-introversion and oral performance are contradictory.In order to address this contradiction, the participants were 40 non-native speakers of English who were studying EFL at Koya University's College of languages located in Northern Iraq. They were administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and interview sessions in which an oral elicitation task was used. During interviewing the participants' speeches were taped and then scored in terms of fluency, accuracy, and complexity. Meanwhile, two PhD non-native speakers of English instructors at the same institution scored the participants pronunciation accuracy and global impression (overall oral production) using 6-point checklists for each. In the analysis, the participants have scores indicating their tendencies towards either extraversion or introversion, and scores for each oral performance components. The results suggest that there was not a significant correlation between extraversion-introversion and EFL oral performance components, fluency, accuracy, complexity, pronunciation, and global impression. In addition, the correlation coefficient values reveal that there is no relationship between the two variables. These findings are discussed with respect to the previous findings in the same research field.