Exploring the Relationship between Personality Traits and English Language Achievement of Students at the Secondary Level in Bangladesh

Abstract

In this era of globalization, English has established itself as a global language which is recognized in every country. In Bangladesh, English is treated as a foreign language (EFL). Acquiring foreign language like English is an immense challenge for the students of all age when their first or second language is not English. Accomplishments are measured through performances like real life usability or academic performance. However, the question “how people learn?” leads to an immense amount of research to explore how learning occurs and how it is affected by some other factors. Factors that affect learning should be addressed to ensure a learning friendly environment, thus it is the most important question to consider.

At present, indeed, teaching and learning process have been more scientific. Consequently, having a clear notion on psychology as well as educational psychology is fortified for the people whose exertion is for children and young people include appraising their learning and emotional needs. However, many studies showed that there lies a strong relationship between personality traits and academic performance. Personality traits affect academic achievement in students, either positively or negatively.

This cross sectional quantitative study was designed with the aim of showing that how personality and individual learning styles affected the academic performance of the EFL learners of Bangladesh. A number of 536 EFL learners from secondary level were participated in this study. Participants were randomly picked from two districts (Comilla and Chittagong) of Bangladesh. Considering the time and budget Class X was selected as a representative of secondary level. Two inventories and an achievement test were executed in the field for getting relevant data from the respondents. Both Personality and Learning Style inventory were adopted from different sources and translated in Bangla before carrying out. Achievement tests were adapted from past papers of Secondary School Certificate (S.S.C) exams prepared by the education boards of Bangladesh. However, instruments were finalized after doing a piloting in the field and the validity and reliability were statistically tested. After getting the data from the fields the responses were coded and inserted in a data template for further analysis. SPSS 23.0 were used for analyzing the data. Both descriptive and inferential statistical test were done for getting the answer of the predetermined research questions.

The study found that the relation between achievement and personality traits is strongly significant (P<0.05). Highest rate of respondent from three categories of achievements (high, moderate and low) belonged to the trait Agreeableness whereas the lowest rate from three categories of achievements belonged to the trait Neuroticism. The study revealed that, considering the achievement highest rate of respondent from three categories (high, moderate and low) were belong to the learning style Multimodal whereas the lowest rate from three categories belonged to Visual. The study also revealed that, at 95% level of CI there is strong significant relation between the academic achievements with the learning styles. Again, at the same CI level, for all the learning styles except Visual, a strong significance difference was found between male and female EFL learners with these learning styles.

The study suggested that awareness program for the parents and proper training for the teachers would be helpful for their better understanding on personality traits and learning styles of the learners and its role in academic excellences. It will also help them to play their role in personality development of the learners and contribute in enhancing the students’ learning potential and their attitudes toward learning. Further study can be done for exploring the learning styles and personality traits of the teachers in both primary and secondary level of education in Bangladesh.