The aim of the project was to establish whether there was a link between a student's personality type (introvert/ambivert/extravert) and their preference for learning vocabulary alone, in pairs or in a group. Their preference was measured both by quantitative test results and also by means of qualitative interviews and questionnaires to try to establish which means of learning was felt to be most enjoyable, least stressful and most helpful.
Kate teaches two classes, both at Entry 3 level. We felt that Entry 3 (intermediate) students would have sufficient English to engage with the project relatively easily. We decided to include both of these classes in order to have a reasonable number of students participating in the study, and 27 learners participated in at least some of the vocabulary learning episodes.
We informed students about the project and obtained their consent. Here, Natalya, one of our students, explains her understanding of what the research is about (click on the image to hear the audio file).
We then proceeded through the following stages:
We then proceeded through the following stages:
Identifying students' personality type
In order to explore the link between personality and vocabulary learning we needed to identify our student's personality type. At the beginning of the project, we invited all participants to fill in a personality quiz. This was an adapted version of the Quiet Quiz with the language suitably graded to enable our learners to understand and complete it. We focussed on questions which gave an indication of the student's preference for stimulating or non-stimulating environments (eg. I enjoy discussing things in a big group). We scored the replies to each question and ranked each learner on a scale from very introvert (score 21-24) to very extravert (score 0-3).
Towards the end of the project, we felt some lack of confidence in the results of this initial assessment and so decided to invite students to self-identify using a further questionnaire. These results were used in the final data analysis, although they were actually strikingly similar to the initial results.
Once we had established students' personality type, we moved on to the main data collection phase of the project.
We selected vocabulary learning as the particular aspect of ESOL teaching to explore, as it was reasonably easy to quantify how much lexis had been learned during the lesson and remembered afterwards. We were most interested in students' ability to recognise and retain the language and to reproduce it in written form, and so pronunciation wasn't a major focus in this instance, although we would wish to check and correct pronunciation of all new lexis at some stage. We therefore adopted a test-teach-test methodology.
One difficulty with the project design was that our pre-and post-tests were not the same. This meant that the test scores before and after the teaching episode were not directly comparable, although the pre-tests gave us a good indication of how many words the learners recognised. We felt, after some debate, that this design was the most suitable for our particular study despite its limitations.
We were particularly interested in whether there was a link between a student's personality and their performance in different learning situations. We therefore devised three different vocabulary learning activities, one involving working alone, one with pairwork and the third in a lively and stimulating group game. Both classes were using the New Headway Intermediate textbook, and so these activities were adapted from the material which we would expect to cover during the term. We expected that the introverts would learn best working alone and the extraverts would perform most strongly during the group activity.
Pairwork
It became apparent during the pre-test that there was an error on the handout and some words for the matching exercise had not been supplied. This was explained to the second class but caused considerable confusion to the first group of learners. Due to this, a second pairwork exercise was added.
Groupwork
End of term
We felt that it would be useful to measure how much lexis the students had retained and so three of the post-tests (excluding weather words) were re-administered towards the end of term.
We were then able to provide each student with a very comprehensive personalised feedback sheet as shown below.
This gave information about their personality type and test scores for each activity, including the end of term tests. It included comments about which ways of learning were most and least successful for them,and the hope was that this would assist students in their future language study.
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| 48% of students were identified as extravert, with 37% more introvert |
Towards the end of the project, we felt some lack of confidence in the results of this initial assessment and so decided to invite students to self-identify using a further questionnaire. These results were used in the final data analysis, although they were actually strikingly similar to the initial results.
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| 44% of the students self-identified as more extraverted, with 37% introverts |
Once we had established students' personality type, we moved on to the main data collection phase of the project.
Quantitative data
One difficulty with the project design was that our pre-and post-tests were not the same. This meant that the test scores before and after the teaching episode were not directly comparable, although the pre-tests gave us a good indication of how many words the learners recognised. We felt, after some debate, that this design was the most suitable for our particular study despite its limitations.
We were particularly interested in whether there was a link between a student's personality and their performance in different learning situations. We therefore devised three different vocabulary learning activities, one involving working alone, one with pairwork and the third in a lively and stimulating group game. Both classes were using the New Headway Intermediate textbook, and so these activities were adapted from the material which we would expect to cover during the term. We expected that the introverts would learn best working alone and the extraverts would perform most strongly during the group activity.
Working alone
- Based around character adjectives which also allowed us to check student's understanding of lexis related to personality so that they could complete the personality quiz.
- Pre-test involved matching words and definitions
- The pre-test was collected before the feedback session to ensure that students did not change their answers.
- Feedback was then given and the words were taught
- Students studied the words on their own for 5 minutes (no talking/interaction allowed except with the teacher)
- Students were then presented with the post-test. This was the list of definitions but this time the words were not supplied - the students needed to remember these and write them in.
Pairwork
- The first episode was based around weather words, which were already known to many students
- Pre-test involved matching pictures and different word classes (verb, noun, adjective)
- The pre-test was collected before the feedback session to ensure that students did not change their answers.
- Feedback was then given and the words were taught
- Students were supplied with pictures and tested each other on the words in pairs for 5 minutes (show picture - tell me the verb, noun and adjective form)
- Students were then presented with the post-test which they completed on their own.
It became apparent during the pre-test that there was an error on the handout and some words for the matching exercise had not been supplied. This was explained to the second class but caused considerable confusion to the first group of learners. Due to this, a second pairwork exercise was added.
- The second episode was based around questions with like (such as "What is he like?" "What does he look like?"), which were unfamiliar to more students.
- Pre-test involved matching questions with definitions
- The pre-test was collected before the feedback session to ensure that students did not change their answers.
- Feedback was then given and the questions were taught
- Students tested each other on the questions in pairs for 5 minutes (one student gave the definition, the other replied with the appropriate question)
- Students were then presented with the post-test which they completed on their own. This was the list of definitions but this time the words were not supplied - the students needed to remember these and write them in.
Groupwork
- This episode was based loosely around the domestic environment and centred on a text about "my favourite room".
- Pre-test involved choosing the appropriate word to fit into blank spaces in the text
- The pre-test was collected before the feedback session to ensure that students did not change their answers.
- Feedback was then given
- The words were taught using a "running dictation" game whereby the definition was stuck to the wall outside the classroom. Students worked in groups and had to take to turns to learn the definition, return to the classroom and relay it to their peers. Each group learned a number of different words by this method, which they subsequently taught to members of the other groups
- Students were then presented with the post-test which they completed on their own. This was the text again with the words blanked out as before. This time the students had to provide the missing words.
End of term
We felt that it would be useful to measure how much lexis the students had retained and so three of the post-tests (excluding weather words) were re-administered towards the end of term.
We were then able to provide each student with a very comprehensive personalised feedback sheet as shown below.
Qualitative data
Students completed questionnaires after each episode of vocabulary learning, where they ranked how stressed they had felt, how much they had enjoyed the exercise, and how much it had helped them to learn the vocabulary. There was also space for them to add their own comments.
In addition, Kate recorded some audio reflections immediately after each episode of vocabulary teaching, which helped to give a rounded picture of the lesson from both the learners' and the teacher's viewpoint. These different perspectives are perhaps best illustrated by the different comments recorded at the end of the groupwork session.
In addition, Kate recorded some audio reflections immediately after each episode of vocabulary teaching, which helped to give a rounded picture of the lesson from both the learners' and the teacher's viewpoint. These different perspectives are perhaps best illustrated by the different comments recorded at the end of the groupwork session.
At the end of term, students were given two copies of a personalised feedback form as described above. They were invited to write down their reactions to this and to return one copy of the form to us. During the same lesson, Rachel met with the learners in groups to talk about how they had found each type of learning activity, and this was audio recorded. The group discussion was loosely structured; firstly the students were asked whether they were more extravert, ambivert or introvert, and then they were asked to describe their feelings about the different types of activity used in class, whether groupwork, pairwork or working alone.
Finally short videos were made of individual students who were asked firstly whether they were introvert/extravert or ambivert, and then what kind of learning suited them best and why.
We felt that it was important that students reflected on their learning experiences throughout the project as this ensured that they would be able to learn more about themselves in the process, as well as giving us statistical data.
Clips from the audio and video recordings ensured that learner voices are heard when reporting back to our colleagues.
