An investigation into extraverts’ and introverts’ speaking anxiety in English classes

Abstract

The presented study aimed at investigating the relationship between the extraversion level and speaking anxiety in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context on the one hand, and testifying the relationship between the extraversion degree and speech fluency and speech accuracy, on the other hand. To this end, 60 advanced university students, including 12 males and 48 females, participated in the study at the quantitative phase, and 28 of them, including 14 from the extraversion levels, and 14 from the introversion levels, were observed on their oral performance at the qualitative phase. Based on Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation using SPSS in the quantitative section, the findings revealed a strong negative correlation between the extraversion level and public speaking anxiety, on the one hand, and a strong positive correlation between the extraversion degree and speech fluency in the qualitative phase, on the other hand. Speech accuracy revealed having no significant correlation with the extraversion degree. Indeed, extraversion and introversion seem to be the major personality differences that have attracted the attention of psycholinguists, in particular Dornyei (2005); henceforth, it would be worth clarifying the underlying characteristics of this construct to gain a more comprehensive view of these personality type indicators, respectively.