Personality factors and Foreign Language Pronunciation Anxiety: The effect of psycho-social training

Abstract

This paper focuses on the link between 16 primary and 5 global personality factors and the Foreign Language Pronunciation Anxiety of 63 Slovak learners of English, who underwent a 24-week psycho-social training (in the experimental group) combined with English pronunciation training (both in the control and experimental group). Data was collected before and after the training interventions, using the Foreign Language Pronunciation Anxiety Scale and the Sixteen-Factor Personality Questionnaire 16 PF. Data analysis proved that the differences in the 16PF scores between the pre-test and post-test were significant for the factors Reasoning, Emotional Stability, Apprehension, Tension and Anxiety in both groups; and for Social Boldness, Vigilance and Self-Control in the experimental group only.