Indonesian EFL Students’ Proficiency in Writing and Ability in Speaking across Personality Learning Styles

Abstract

This research aimed at examining Indonesian EFL students’ proficiency in writing and ability in public speaking across personality learning styles: extroversion and introversion. It involved 74 undergraduate students who took an Essay Writing course in the English Department of Universitas Negeri Malang, one of the leading universities in Indonesia. The students were distributed into three classes. They were taught how to write essays. Then, the students were made aware that they had to complete two tasks: writing and presenting a cause and effect essay on topics related to English language teaching. The students’ cause and effect essays were scored to know their proficiency in writing and their presentation was assessed to know their ability in speaking. Two scoring rubrics were used and two raters were involved in the scoring process for interrater reliability. The results of the research showed that the Indonesian EFL students’ proficiency in writing is strongly related to their ability in speaking for both groups of students. In addition, the Indonesian extrovert EFL students’ proficiency in writing is strongly related to their ability in speaking. The Indonesian introvert EFL students’ proficiency in writing is also strongly related to their ability in speaking. However, there is no significant difference of the proficiency in writing and ability speaking between the extrovert and introvert students.