Investigating the Effect of Extraversion/Introversion on Students' Test Performance.

Abstract

The current research seeks to investigate the impact of extraversion/introversion personality dimension on EFL learners’ test performance. This study aims at displaying the importance of the personality type of EFL students (particularly extraversion/introversion) during the testing process. Equally, it endeavors to find out which type is more successful in relation to test performance; the extrovert or the introvert, while primarily suggesting the supremacy of introverts. In an attempt to verify the former hypothesis, 101 first year Master students at the department of English, University of 8 Mai 1945 - Guelma, were subject to an extraversion/introversion test to uncover their psychological tendencies. Next, a corpus analysis of exam marks of those previously personality identified students was conducted in order to count the overall average of extroverts and introverts, separately, for the sake of comparison. Also, a questionnaire was administered to 19 EFL teachers at the same department; so that to explore their perceptions towards the subject under study. Unexpectedly, the analysis of both research tools revealed that extroverts achieve higher grades than introverts. In respect to those findings, this research significantly contributes to the existing body of knowledge and offers a bunch of recommendations for future research.