Temperament as a psychological factor in learning a foreign language

Volume 3, Number 2, 2018, P. 86–90

[ PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES ]

Article (file: pdf, size: 160 KB, downloads: 735)

Abstract:

The article examines the influence of the students’ temperament on their ability to master a foreign language and the role of individual psychological features of temperament in the learning process. It provides different views of the researchers toward this problem and discusses the concepts of temperament and characteristics of each type with respect to the study of a foreign language. The results of testing of students with the purpose of studying the characteristics of their temperament are analyzed and the approaches to teaching a foreign language in the future are considered. An important feature of temperament is its relative stability during human life, i.e. it is inherited nervous properties, which have an impact on the speed of learning and skills formation. These are the properties that determine the psychological readiness of the student, the pace and rhythm of his activity, his emotions. They have a particularly strong influence on attention, perception and memory, i.e. those components that are fundamental in teaching. As teachers are very often confronted with the lack of students’ motivation to learn a foreign language, the recommendations for teaching methods choice are suggested taking into account the personal characteristics of people with different types of temperament in order to stimulate students to learn a foreign language.

Keywords:

temperament, types of temperament, psychological factor, foreign language, the role of the teacher, forming skills

Author:

Irina V. Soldatenko, Senior Lecturer, Department of Foreign Languages for the Humanities,Irkutsk National Research Technical University, Irkutsk, Russia

For citation:

Soldatenko I.V. Temperament as a psychological factor in learning a foreign language. Social Competence, 2018, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 86–90. (In Russian).

References:

  1. Temperament [Temperament]. Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82 (accessed 15 December 2018).
  2. Merlin V.S. Sobranie sochinenii [Collected writings]. In 5 vol. Vol. 3: Ocherk teorii temperamenta [Analytical review of temperament theory]. Perm’: Prikamsk Social Institute Publ., 2007, 274 p. (In Russian).
  3. Kratkaya kharakteristika tipov temperamenta [Brief characteristics of temperament types]. Available at: http://psixologia.59311s001.edusite.ru/p34aa1.html (accessed 5 February 2018).
  4. Test Aizenka [Izenk Test]. Availabe at: http://test.msk.ru/psy2_test/test_ayzenka (accessed 6 October 2017).
  5. Belyaev B.V. Ocherki po psikhologii obucheniya inostrannym yazykam [Essays on psychology of teaching foreign languages]. Moscow: Prosveshchenie Publ., 1965, 229 p. (In Russian).
  6. Zimnyaya I.A. Psikhologicheskie aspekty obucheniya govoreniyu na inostrannom yazyke [Psychological aspects of learning to speak in a foreign language]. Moscow: Prosveshchenie Publ., 1978, 159 p. (In Russian).
  7. Mil’rud R.P. Metodika prepodavaniya angliiskogo yazyka [Methods of teaching English]. Moscow: Drofa Publ., 2005, 256 p. (In Russian).
  8. Shcherbakova E.A., Gavrilova T.V. Influence of Temperament on Productive Communication Skills Formation in the Process of English Teaching at the Extralingual School. Territoriya novykh vozmozhnostei. Vestnik Vladivostokskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta ekonomiki i servisa [Territory of new opportunities. Bulletin of Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service], 2015, no. 3 (30), pp. 145–150. (In Russian).