The Relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ Personality Traits and Cognitive Styles

The Relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ Personality Traits and Cognitive Styles

RAHIMI, Masoumeh

Key words: Personality Traits,Cognitive Styles, VAK typology,Modality model ABSTRACT As Modality model in learning styles suggests, learners are divided into three parts: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. And according to personality model some learners are introvert and some extrovert. The relationship between these essential points in teaching process is very helpful both for foreign language learners and teachers to improve their learning and teaching and make the lessons more effective for themselves and also for curriculum. The purpose of the present study is to find the direct relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ Personality Traits and Cognitive Styles. The study considered 60 females’ participant, which were selected randomly at Zabansara English Language Institute in Bushehr, Iran. Nearly all the participants belonged to the age group of 13-16. They were all learning English at intermediate levels. Two research instruments were used to gather the needed data for this study: Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) and VAK learning styles test. Correlation Coefficient was used to analyze the collected data. The result suggested that there was significant and direct relationship between visual learners and introvert learners which means they preferred learning alone or in small groups. Those auditory and kinesthetic learners were extrovert. This study invites language teachers to be more sensitive and considerate about their learners, some need visual support for learning new things the others auditory, and kinesthetic support.

Article
PeerReviewed

IBU Publishing

2013-05-03

1895