The Big Five in SLA PDF
Preview The Big Five in SLA
Second Language Learning and Teaching Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel The Big Five in SLA Second Language Learning and Teaching Series Editor Mirosław Pawlak, Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts, Adam Mickiewicz University, Kalisz, Poland The series brings together volumes dealing with different aspects of learning and teaching second and foreign languages. The titles included are both monographs and edited collections focusing on a variety of topics ranging from the processes underlying second language acquisition, through various aspects of language learningininstructedandnon-instructedsettings,todifferentfacetsoftheteaching process, including syllabus choice, materials design, classroom practices and evaluation. The publications reflect state-of-the-art developments in those areas, they adopt a wide range of theoretical perspectives and follow diverse research paradigms. The intended audience are all those who are interested in naturalistic and classroom second languageacquisition, including researchers, methodologists, curriculum and materials designers, teachers and undergraduate and graduate students undertaking empirical investigations of how second languages are learnt and taught. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10129 Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel The Big Five in SLA 123 EwaPiechurska-Kuciel Institute of Linguistics OpoleUniversity Opole, Opolskie, Poland ISSN 2193-7648 ISSN 2193-7656 (electronic) Second LanguageLearningandTeaching ISBN978-3-030-59323-0 ISBN978-3-030-59324-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59324-7 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s),underexclusivelicensetoSpringerNature SwitzerlandAG2020 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsaresolelyandexclusivelylicensedbythePublisher,whether thewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseof illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmissionorinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilar ordissimilarmethodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfrom therelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained hereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregard tojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations. ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland Acknowledgements Iwouldliketothankmyreviewers,Prof.HannaKomorowskaandProf.Katarzyna Ożańska-Ponikwia, for their insightful criticism and valuable suggestions. v Introduction The study of personality is a fascinating field, though very hard to grasp by someonewithoutapsychologicalbackground.Nevertheless,personalitypertainsto everyhumanbeing,aswellaseverywalkoflife;forthisreason,thereisapressing need for specialists from other fields to come into grips with this specific area. Hence,thebasicintentionofthepresentstudyistoshedsomelightontherelevance ofpersonalityresearchinthesecondlanguageacquisition(SLA)field.Itgradually unfoldssubsequentaspectsoftheresearchonpersonality,startingfromestablishing a general background, which is situated in psychology. It captures the basic ter- minology, an outline of historical advances devoted to the study of the concept, together with a focused analysis of the undertaken empirical research devoted to personality traits. From this foundation, the focus moves to second language acquisition—its basic terminology, role and its approach to personality. Specifically,thebookconsistsoffourchapters,thefirsttwoofwhicharesituated withinthedisciplineofpsychology,whilethetwoconsecutiveones—withinSLA. The aim of Chap. 1, entitled “Personality: Definitions, Approaches and Theories”, is to establish a foundation for further considerations of a psychological and lin- guistic nature. Consequently, it contains a description of the field of personality psychology together with the key term of “personality”. Then, a summary of the main approaches to the study of personality follows, including psychoanalytic, learningandhumanisticperspectives.Theobjectiveofthesecondpartistopresent anotherperspectiveinpersonality studies, whicharedividedintotwobasic trends: typeandtraitapproaches,outlinedtogetherwithascrutinyofrespectivemeasuring instruments. The first one, represented by ancient taxonomies, Jung’s and Myers-Briggstypologies,focusesonqualitativedifferencesanddiscretecategories, while the other, represented by Allport’s, Cattell’s and Eysenck’s taxonomies, on thelatentstructureofpersonality,basedonstatisticalprocedures.Thelatterhasled tothedevelopment ofthetraitmodeladoptedasthegroundworkofthisvolume— the Big Five. The last section of this chapter presents a general description of the mostimportant theories exploring thedevelopmentofpersonalityacross alifespan (psychosexual by Freud, psychosocial by Erikson, cognitive by Piaget and social cognitive by Selman). vii viii Introduction Thenextchapter,“TheBigFiveTraitsandTheirRamifications”,focusesonthe analysisofthetraitsandtheirconsequences, presentedfrom variousviewpoints.It starts from a general description of the Big Five model and its theoretical justifi- cation. First, its categories are depicted, then its theoretical foundations are explained on the basis of the Five-Factor Theory. The recent hierarchical organi- zation of traits is presented in the following section, allowing for establishing a coherent personality structure. The chapter also includes a description of the most popular instruments used in assessing personality traits. The remaining part of the chapter is devoted to a detailed research review of each trait, in reference to its respective higher-order meta-trait of Stability or Plasticity, as well as lower-order phenotypicaspects.Thankstosuchanorganization,thetraitcanbecomprehended as a unity. Then the six facets of each dimension are discussed, prompted by the observationthatonlyadeepunderstandingofthetraitatthefacetlevelenablesone to truly envision its specific ramifications. To bring this analysis to the fullest, the discussion of the traits’ meaning is broadened by outlining their most common socioaffective, cognitive and academic, as well as behavioural consequences. The chapter finishes with a description of gender and age differences in the context of each dimension, followed by an outline of the development of the Big Five traits across the lifespan, due to their relevance for the personality profile of the foreign language learner. Chapter3,called“BigFivefromtheSLAPerspective”,aimstoassesstheroleof personality traits in SLA. It starts with an overview of the discipline, that com- mences with an introduction of the basic terminology related to the field, which is relevant to the discussion of the studied issues. This is followed by a short pre- sentation of the uniqueness of SLA when compared to other, apparently similar, research fields or subjects. Then an outline of the typologies of individual learner differences,amongwhichpersonalitycansometimesbefound,ispresentedinorder todemonstratethestandingoftheanalyzedconceptinthefield.Inturn,thisleadsto a discussion of the merit of personality research in SLA that is not free from significant inconsistencies and limitations. The greatest part of the chapter is devoted to theoretical propositions pertaining to the prospective research on each BigFivetrait,resultingfromthesocioaffective,cognitiveandacademic,aswellas behavioural ramifications of each respective trait, outlined in the previous chapter. Theyarefollowedbyareviewoftheexisting,recentempiricalresearchfocusingon the specific personality dimensions in the SLA literature. The basic principles guiding the selection of the studies described herein are their relevance to the purpose of this synopsis, as well as their relatively recent publication date. Thelastchapter,“PersonalityStudyinSLA:FutureDirectionsandPedagogical Implications”, is an attempt to integrate the existing theoretical and empirical studies on personality traits in SLA in order to consider possible future research directions related to the scrutiny of the Big Five traits. In the next step, possible solutions to problems of a theoretical and empirical nature, connected with conflictingresearchresultsgeneratedbypersonalitystudiesinSLA,outlinedinthe previous chapter, are offered. So far, for the sake of simplicity and clarity, the personality traits have been analyzed as independent entities; hence, the next Introduction ix subsectionisdevotedtosomeconsiderationsoftraitclustersthatmightbeusefulto describe the ideal L2 achiever. The penultimate section contains an outline of pedagogicalinterventionstheaimofwhichistoenhancespecificstrengthsofgiven traits and to suppress their weaknesses, in order to gain better FL learning effects. The final comments included in this chapter address the importance of studying personality,bothforthepurposeofimprovingtheteachingexpertise,andcommon well-being. Asidefromincludingageneraloutlineonpersonalityresearch,themainfocusof this book is the Big Five conceptualization of personality traits in the area of SLA studies.Evenwiththisnarrowedfocus,itwasnotpossibletoincludeallsignificant aspects of the impact of personality on the process of foreign language learning. Among them, biological approaches to personality or the role of culture and genetics or the links between personality and identity should be mentioned. Unfortunately, the scope of this book prevented the inclusion of these and many other broad topics. This monograph has been written for those who might be interested in learning more about human nature in the context of second language acquisition. Specifically, this study is directed to non-psychologists, applied linguists and lan- guage teaching specialists. It may also be of interest to advanced MA students, novice andseasonedresearchers,aswell asteachertrainees wishingtoexplorethe intricaciesofpersonalityinreferencetothemselves,theirstudentsortheirpersonal study focus. Finally, this book may be of use to anyone who wants to know and understand more about the role of personality in learning a foreign language. Contents Introduction... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... vii 1 Personality: Definitions, Approaches and Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 Personality: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1.1 Definitions of Personality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1.2 An Outline of Personality Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2 Type and Trait Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 1.2.1 Type Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 1.2.2 Trait Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 1.3 Personality Across the Life Span. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 2 The Big Five Traits and Their Ramifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 2.1 The Big Five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 2.1.1 The Big Five Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 2.1.2 Five-Factor Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.1.3 The Trait Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 2.1.4 The Measuring Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 2.2 Neuroticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 2.2.1 The Higher and Lower Order Structure of Neuroticism . . . 37 2.2.2 Consequences of Neuroticism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2.3 Extraversion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 2.3.1 Higher and Lower Order Structure of Extraversion . . . . . . 47 2.3.2 Consequences of Extraversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 2.4 Openness to Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 2.4.1 Higher and Lower Order Structure of Openness to Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 2.4.2 Consequences of Openness to Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 2.5 Agreeableness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 2.5.1 The Higher and Lower Order Structure of Agreeableness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 2.5.2 Consequences of Agreeableness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 xi
The list of books you might like
