Relations Between Personality Traits, Language Learning Styles and Success in Foreign Language Achievement

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show that the reflections of different personality types can be observed in students' developing different learning styles for themselves. It is hypothesized that personality may be a dominant factor in achieving the educational goals through several learning styles in foreign language achievement. To clarify this relationship, Maudsley's 'Personality' and Barsch's 'Learning Styles' inventories were distributed to Bilkent University Freshman students studying at the Faculty of Engineering, Science, Economics, Fine Arts, and Humanities & Letters, who received the English 101 course in their first year at the university. The results were evaluated statistically and the findings showed that there is not a statistically strong, but a low relationship between the personality traits of the learner, the way he/she establishes the learning styles and reflects these characteristics into success while learning a foreign language.