INFLUENCES OF PERSONALITY ON STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The great demand for pair work and group work in speaking lessons at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (ULIS, VNU) and the weaknesses of first-year students in those activities have been a source of inspiration to this research paper. The research paper focuses on both influences of personality on students’ performance and possible recommendations to overcome the problems. To achieve these purposes, 52 first-year students and 2 experienced speaking teachers at Division 1, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU have taken part in the data collection process including questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations. Afterwards, the data analysis detected that unstable-extroverted was the common trend of students’ personality. Besides, some positive and negative influences of personality types on students’ performance in pair work and group work speaking activities were found out. Based on those influences, recommendations of dividing groups and pairs as well as dividing roles and tasks for students in pair work and group work were raised to reduce the negative effects and increase positive ones.