Personality and speech production: a pilot study of second language learners

• Published in: Personality and individual differences Vol. 28; no. 2; pp. 355 - 365
• Main Authors: Dewaele, Jean-Marc, Furnham, Adrian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2000; Elsevier
• Subjects: Bilingualism. Multilingualism; Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Language; Learning; Personality; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Second languages; Speech production; Students; Human; French; Extraversion introversion; Language; Young adult; Bilingualism; Personality; Verbal production; Foreign language
• ISSN: 0191-8869; 1873-3549
• DOI: 10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00106-3

Personality traits, and extraversion in particular, has long been unjustly neglected in applied linguistics. Some cognitive and physiological characteristics associated with extraversion, such as superior short-term memory and better resistance to stress, can explain interindividual variation in speech production. Working within the theoretical framework of Levelt [Levelt, W. J. M. (1989). Speaking. From intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA–London: ACL-MIT Press.] and de Bot [de Bot, K. (1992). A bilingual production model. Levelt's ‘speaking’ model adapted. Applied Linguistics, 13 (1), 1–24.] , we analysed the French oral interlanguage of 25 Flemish university students and related this to their EPI scores. Correlational analyses between extraversion scores and 6 linguistic variables reflecting fluency and accuracy revealed that extravert bilinguals are more fluent than introvert bilinguals, especially in interpersonal stressful situations. Different hypotheses are presented to explain this phenomenon.