Personality Factors

1
Personality Factors Second Language
Acquisition
Chapter 6
TSL3241

• b y G L A D Y S L O P E Z
  R A F A E L M E N D I O
  L A
• MIAMI DADE COLLEGE - SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

2
Human BeingsareEmotional Creatures
3
Emotions
affect

• What you do
• What you learn
• What you think

4
Affective Domain of 2L Acquisition

• Intrinsic Personality Factors (ch.6)
• Extrinsic Sociocultural Variables (ch.7)

5
Personality Factors
Outline

• I. The Affective Domain
• II. Myers-Briggs (Character Types)
• III. Motivation
• IV. The Neurobiology of Affect 
• V. Measuring Affective Factors  

6
I. Affective Domain

• Bloom and Development of the Affective Domain
• Development begins with
• Receiving.
• Responding.
• Valuing. Placing worth.
• Organization. System of beliefs Hierarchy.
• Act in accordance with the value system.

7
Specific Personality Factors (6)

• Self-Esteem
• Inhibition
• Risk-Taking
• Anxiety
• Empathy
• Extroversion

8
1. Self - Esteem
PERSONALITY FACTORS

• Personal Judgment of worthiness
• that is expressed in the attitudes that
  individuals hold toward themselves
• Derived from experiences with themselves and
  others, and assessments of the external world

9
3 Levels of Self-Esteem

• General or Global (overall self-appraisal over
  time)
• Situational / Specific (self-appraisal in
  particular life situations)
• Task (particular tasks within specific
  situations)

10
Self-Esteem
Application in the classroom

• Teachers can have a positive and
  influential effect on
• Linguistic performance
• The Emotional well-being of the students

11
2. Inhibition
PERSONALITY FACTORS

• All human beings build sets of defenses
• to protect the ego (concept of own self )
• Newborns no concept of own self
• Childhood begin to create it
• Adolescence changesPhysical, Emotional, and
  Cognitive gt defensive inhibitions to protect
  fragile EGO
• Adulthood more building defenses

12
Inhibition and Language Ego(Guiora)

• 2L acquisition involves a New Identity
• An adaptive language ego enables learners to
  lower the inhibitions that may impede success.

13
Inhibition
Application in the classroom

• The removal of defenses promote language learning

14
3. Risk-Taking
PERSONALITY FACTORS

• Good language learners have The ability to make
  intelligent guesses.
• Impulsivity gt positive effects in 2L.
• Take the risk of being wrong (bad grade, fail in
  one exam, punishment, embarrassment)

15
Risk-Taking
Application in the classroom

• High Risk-Takers may be need to be tamed
• Silent Students Encourage guessing
• Value the student as persons for those risks that
  they take.

16
4. Anxiety
PERSONALITY FACTORS

• Associated with feelings of frustration,
  self-doubt, apprehension, worry, or uneasiness.
• Levels of Anxiety
• Trait - permanent predisposition
• State - momentary or situational
• Debilitative - Harmful
• Facilitative - Helpful gtPOSITIVE FACTOR

17
Anxiety
Application in the classroom

• Differentiate if the anxiety is Trait (permanent)
  or State (momentary)
• Promote a Facilitative Anxiety (positive effects)

18
5. Empathy
PERSONALITY FACTORS

• Language gt keep bonds of society
• Social transaction (to reach out beyond the self
  to others gt tool language)
• Transactional variables imitation, modeling,
  empathy, etc
• 2L important variables Empathy and Extroversion

19
Empathy

• putting yourself into someone elses shoes
• Communication requires a sophisticated degree of
  empathy.
• To be able to understand the other persons
  affective and cognitive states

20
Empathy
Application in the classroom

• The need to define empathy cross-culturally
• How different cultures express empathy.

21
6. Extroversion
PERSONALITY FACTORS

• Stereotype (gregarious, life of the party)
• Extroverts. Need to receive ego enhancement,
  self-esteem, and a sense of wholeness from other
  people.
• They NEED OTHER people to feel good

22

• Contrary to our stereotypes
• Introverts can have an inner strength of
  character

23
Extroversion
Application in the classroom

• Stereotypes have influenced teachers perception
  of students.
• Prejudging on the basis of perceived
  extroversion.
• Visibility in the classroom is not due to
  extroversion factor.
• Cultural factor improper to speak out
• Extroversion may be a symptom of defensive
  barriers
• There is no correlation of and 2L success

Motivation
24
Conclusions gt Personality Factors

• Self-Esteem
• Inhibition
• Risk-Taking
• Anxiety
• Empathy
• Extroversion

25
II. Personality Type Myers-Briggs
26
II. Personality Type and Success
Myers-Briggs

• Character Types
• Carl Jung people are different in fundamental
  ways
• An individual has preferences for functioning
  in ways that are typical of that particular
  individual.
• Factor INDIVIDUAL VARIATION

27
Four two-dimensional Styles
Myers-Briggs Test

• (I/E) Introversion vs. Extroversion (sense of
  wholeness and Self-Esteem)
• (S/I) Sensing vs. Intuition (perception of the
  world)
• (T/F) Thinking vs. Feeling (conclusions
  storing of reality in memory)
• (J/P) Judging vs. Perceiving (attitude toward
  the outer world)

28
Personality Profiles

• Four two-dimensional categories
• 16 personality profiles or combinations
• Example ENJF or ISTP
• Implications ES will excel in group workIS
  will prefer individual works

29
Myers-Briggs
Application in the classroom

• Differences in strategy use for 2L, depending
  into strategies associated with native Learning
  Style
• Successful learner know their preferences,
  strengths and weakness, and effectively utilize
  strengths and compensate for weaknesses
  regardless of their natural preferences

30
III. Motivation

• Success gtgtgt Motivation

31
3 Perspectives
Motivation

• Behaviorist is the anticipation of rewarded
  (our acts gt external forces)
• Cognitive is due to Individual decisions
• Constructivist emphasis on Social Context
  and individual personal choices

32
Instrumental and Integrative Orientations

• Instrumental attaining instrument goals (reading
  technical material, translation, furthering a
  career)
• Integrative integrate themselves into the
  culture of 2L

33
Intrinsic and Extrinsic

• Intrinsic - No apparent reward, except the
  activity itselfgt competence and
  self-determination
• Extrinsic - reward from outside and beyond the
  self.

34
Motivation
Application in the classroom

• 2L requires some of all there levels of
  motivation
• Our pedagogical tools can harness the power of
  intrinsically motivated learners who are striving
  for Excellence, autonomy, and self-actualization

end
35
IV. The Neurobiology of Affect
36
IV. The Neurobiology of Affect

• PET, MRI
• Affectivity and mental/emotional processing gt 2L
• Amygdala ability to make an appraisal of a
  stimulus
• To decide if your perception is pleasant and
  relevant or unpleasant and painful

37
Neurobiology
Application in the classroom

• Schumann Positive appraisals of the language
  learning situation enhance 2L and negative
  appraisals inhibit 2L

38
V. Measuring Affective Factors

• Paper-and-pencil tests
• asking for self-rating

39
Such tests present 3 problems

• Validity a) widely validated previously b)
  do not rely on only one instrument
• Self-flattery syndrome perceptions are biased gt
  desirable personality type
• Culturally ethnocentric difficult to interpret
  cross-culturally

40
Conclusions

• Affective factors influence greatly in 2L
• Take caution in current methods of measurement
  reliable and valid instruments
• Identify those personality factors significant
  for 2L