An Investigation of the Extraverts-Introverts Speaking Anxiety in English Classes

Abstract

The present study aims 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 to testify the relationship between the extraversion degree and their speech fluency and speech accuracy, on the other hand. To this end, 60 advanced university students comprising 12 males and 48 females took part 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 not to have any significant correlation with the extraversion degree. Indeed, extraversion-introversion seems to be one of the major personality differences that has grabbed the attention of the psycholinguists, in particular (Dornyei,2005); henceforth, it would be worthwhile to clarify the underlying characteristics of this construct to gain a  more comprehensive view of this personality type indicator, respectively.