Personality and Language Learning

Aditya PutriAditya Wardhana

Eka RambeHery Yanti

Lailah QodariahZainah

PsycholinguisticsThe Theory of Language Acquisition

Introduction

The Affective DomainAffective refers to emotion or feeling. It involves behavior and educational objectives that have some emotional overtones that deals with attitudes, values, interests, beliefs and appreciation.The affective domain is the emotional part of human behavior, and it may be placed side by side to the cognitive part.

The Affective DomainBenjamin Bloom et al. (1964) defined five levels of affectivity:

1. Receiving: when one is aware of the surrounding environment and willing to receive, to tolerate a stimulus.

2. Responding: to commit to a phenomenon or a person, to respond voluntarily.

3. Valuing: to place worth on one thing, willing to be identified with it.

4. Organization of values into a system of beliefs.

5. Value system: when one becomes characterized by one's value system.

Personality Factors in Human Behavior

Egocentric FactorsTransactional FactorsMotivational Factors

Egocentric Factors

Self-EsteemInhibition

Self-Esteem

Carl Rogers (1951:136-37): The self-concept may be thought of as an organizes configuration of perceptions of the self which are admissible to awareness.

Self-EsteemIt can be gained by (1) the accumulation of experiences with himself and with others and (2) the assessments of the external world around him.Three categories of self-esteem: 1. General or global self-esteem is overall sense of worth.2. Situational or specific self-esteem is one's appraisal of oneself in certain life situations, e.g., work, education, home, athletic ability, etc.3. Task self-esteem relates to specific tasks within a particular time.

Inhibitionis a feeling that makes one self-conscious and unable to act in a relaxed and natural way.Brown (1994)noted, language learning implies a great deal of self-exposure as it necessarily involves making mistakes.

Self-Esteem

Coopersmith (1967:4-5): a personal judgment of worthiness that is expressed in the attitudes that the individual holds toward himself.

Transactional Factors

1. Empathy2. Extroversion3. Aggression

Empathy

The process of "putting yourself into someone else's shoes," or reaching beyond the self and understanding and feeling what other person is understanding or feeling.It is not the same as sympathy.In order to communicate effectively, someone needs to be able to understand the other person's affective and cognitive states.

ExtroversionThe outgoing, friendly, sociable, talkative personality is the desirable behavior in Western society.Brown (1980): the extroverted person may actually behave that way to protect his own ego; the introverted, more reserved person may show high empathy.It is still unclear that the extroversion or introversion helps or hinders the process of L2 acquisition.

AggressionAggression is a behavior necessary for survival.La Forge (1971) noted that the over display of hostility seemed to facilitate communication and to lead toward less inhibited and freer, semi grammatical conversation.Brown (1980) believes that aggression could be a central factor determining motivation to learn a language, and foreign language teaching methods have to focus on positive and constructive aggressive behavior.

Motivational Factors

1. Basic Needs and Drives2. Instrumental and Integrative Motivation

Basic Needs and DrivesSix needs which strengthen the construct of motivation:1. The need for exploration: for probing the unknown.2. The need for manipulation: for operating the environment and causing change.3. The need for activity: for movement and exercise, physical and mental.4. The need for stimulation: the need to be stimulated by the environment, other people, ideas, thoughts and feelings.5. The need for knowledge: the need to process and internalize the results of exploration, manipulation, activity, and stimulation to overcome contradiction.6. The need for ego enhancement: the need for the self to be known and to be accepted and approved by others.

Instrumental and Integrative Motivation

Robert Gardner and Walace Lambert (1972): Motivation was examined as a factor of a number of different kinds of attitudes.1. Instrumental motivation: motivation to acquire language as a means for getting instrumental goals, such as furthering a career, translation, etc.2. Integrative motivation: to integrate oneself within the culture of L2 group, as part of that society.

Community Language LearningCommunity Language Learning is one of the teaching methods that try to provide the humanistic context and affective support necessary to meet egocentric, transactional, and motivational necessities of L2 acquisition.

ConclusionIn this chapter, we have discussed personality and language learning, which include :

* The affective domain,

* Egocentric factors – comprising self-esteem and inhibition,

* Transactional factors consisting of three sub-components, that is empathy, extroversion, and aggression.

Besides, we have also discussed :

-> “motivation” which subsumes basic needs and drives;

-> “instrumental” and integrative motivation”