Language, Identity and the Digital Realm

Language, Identity and the Digital Realm

Investigating the Association of EFL Teachers’ Big Five Personality Traits to their Learners’ English Achievement

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Shiraz University, Iran
Abstract
The present study investigated the extent to which English language teachers’ personality dimensions (i.e., extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, agreeableness, and neuroticism) are associated with their EFL learners’ academic English achievement. Indeed, it sought to firstly delineate the patterns of correlation between these personality traits and the learners’ English achievement and secondly to evaluate these traits predictive efficacy and their hierarchy of relative influence on the learners’ English attainment. Employing a correlational research design and a purposive sampling, twenty English teachers completed the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and their responses were analyzed considering the English achievement scores of their twelfth-grade students (340 EFL learners). The findings revealed robust positive correlations between teacher conscientiousness (r = .73) and extraversion (r = .65) and learners’ English achievement, whereas neuroticism exhibited a strong negative association (r = −.65). Regression analyses further indicated that overall teacher personality serves as a significant predictor of EFL learners’ attainment, with extraversion emerging as the only statistically significant individual predictor. These results underscored the critical role of personality-informed approaches in teacher education and professional development programs, highlighting their potential to enhance EFL learners’ English performance.
Keywords

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