The Role of Personality in Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the role of personality variables in second language acquisition and then to integrate such variables into an adapted version of Gardner's socio-educational model which was tested using LISREL causal modeling. A total of 88 first-year university students of French were assessed on measures of language aptitude, attitudes, motivation, French achieve-ment, self-perceptions of proficiency in French, and personality traits. The latent variables in the model included Language Aptitude, Self-Confidence with the second language, Integrativeness, Attitude towards the Learning Situation, Motivation, Situational Anxiety, and two personality con-structs labelled Analytic Orientation and Seriousness. The final model is discussed in light of previous models of second language acquisition. A considerable amount of research has demonstrated the relation of language aptitude, motivation, and attitudes to achievement in a second language (see, for example, Gardner & Lambert, 1972). Although personality traits have also been hypothesized to be important, past research has produced equivocal results. This article considers the possible role played by personality variables in second-language acquisition,and provides an empirical test of a causal model linking personality variables with language aptitude, attitudes, motivation and second language achievement. A number of studies have examined the role of personality variables in second language learning (see bibliography by Hodge, 1978). Early discussions of poten-tial personality characteristics of successful second language learners tended to discern two types, the introvert and the extrovert (Dunkel, 1947; Kawczynski, 1951; Valette, 1964). Studies examining this implied dimension of sociability, however, have provided no consistent pattern of results concerning the role of sociability in second language acquisition (see Chastain,