| Studies on learning strategies of foreign/second languages have received worldwide attention from both researchers and instructors since 1960s. To help learners to learn language effectively and efficiently, in the field of foreign/second language research, focus has been shifted from teachers to learners, that is, from "exclusive focus improvement of teaching to an increased concern for how learners go about their learning tasks" (Oxford, 1990). Greater importance has been attached to learning strategies since the advocacy of learning autonomy. Learning strategies are important to greater autonomy (Wenden, 1991). Whether an individual learner can achieve success in his language learning, to a large degree, rests with himself and his ability of autonomous learning. Undoubtedly, learning strategies has got vast attention and constitutes one important element in helping students to be autonomous learners.In the past several decades, a number of researches have been done on learning strategies, aiming at finding out the differences in the employment of learning strategies between effective learners and less effective ones, the relationship between learning outcome and learning strategies, factors influencing the choice of learning strategies, ways to train learners' learning strategies and the relationship between learning autonomy and learning strategies. As for the factors influencing the choice of learning strategies, the following elements are found to effect change in the choice: motivation, aptitude, achievement of learning, and personality, etc.Personality, an important factor in the employment of language learning strategies, also has received due attention. Ellis (1994) summarized two major hypotheses concerning the relationship between extroversion/introversion and foreign/second language learning. One is that extroversion is positively correlated with Basic Interpersonal Communication Skill (BICS); the other is that introversion help learners develop cognitive academic language ability (CALP) faster than extroverts. Nevertheless, the research results were inconclusive: some researches provided evidences for these hypotheses, while some other research results were not supportive of them (Naiman & al., 1978; Busch, 1982; Strong, 1983; Robson, 1992; Carrell & Prince, 1996; etc.). The study in Chinese context also came to different conclusions. Wang (2000) in her research concluded that personality types have an obvious influence on foreign language learning, whereas Liang and Tan (1999) found that there is little influence of introversion and extroversion on foreign language learning.Later on, researchers began to study the influence of personality types on learning strategy employment. From the findings of the limited literature to date, one point is certain, that is, personality types do have a lot of influence on the choice of learning strategies (Ehrman and Oxford, 1990; Wu, 2005; etc.). However, in all researches which study the influence of personality on learning strategies, foreign/second language learning is researched as a whole, regardless of the different aspects of learning: few researchers have attempted to study the influence of personality on the strategies for specific aspects of foreign language learning, say learning strategies in improving listening ability, oral English learning strategy, etc. With the increasing awareness of the importance of oral English, to better understand the influence of personality on oral English study, the present study is intended to study the relationship between personality (in terms of introversion and extroversion) and oral English achievement, and examine the influence of introversion/extroversion on the choice of oral English learning strategies of good oral English learners.This study chose first-year students of English majors of School of Foreign Languages of Southwest University as the subjects. The total number of subjects was 117. First an investigation of personality was administered to examine whether the subjects were introverts or extroverts. The questionnaire for investigation of personality is made up of an adapted version of Eysenck Introversion-extroversion Scale made by Gong Yaoxian for Chinese and a personal-information part with 4 blank-filling items and 2 multiple-choice items, helping the researcher to learn about the subjects' name, sex, birth-date, their identification of their own personality types and their opinion on the influence of personality types on oral English learning. Because of the discrepancy in some subjects' self-judged personality and the result of the questionnaire, the subjects' personality was not totally dependant on the result of the questionnaire investigation; observations of their teachers and classmates were also taken into consideration for the determination of the subjects' personality. Then an oral English test was conducted to get their oral English speaking ability. The oral English test was designed in accordance with the format of CET (College English Test) Spoken English Test, which consisted of three parts: an interaction between candidates and the examiner; an interaction among three candidates within group; further questions from the examiner to double check the candidates' oral ability. The subjects' oral English ability was determined based on the result of the test. Finally, those subjects with strong tendency of introversion and extroversion who were considered as good oral English learners according to the test were selected for the investigation of learning strategies for oral English study (4 introverts and 11 extroverts). The strategy questionnaire basically originated from Oxford' classification of learning strategies, supplemented with monitor strategies, formal practice strategies and functional practice strategies separated from cognitive strategies as two independent strategy categories.After obtaining the statistics, the statistical analyses were carried out with the authorized software Excel 2003 and SPSS 13 for windows. First an analysis was conducted with the aid of Spearman correlation coefficient to see how oral English outcome is related to personality types (in terms of introversion/extroversion). Then T-value test was employed to test the statistical significance of the mean difference of strategies employed by the introverts and the extroverts. The result of the analysis indicates that personality types (introversion/extroversion) are not correlated with oral English outcome, which means that personality types has no or little influences on the study of oral English, or it may be that the influences of personality types is offset by other factors influencing learning, like motivation. As for differences of strategies employment, no significant difference is found in the general use of the learning strategies of oral English between the introverts and the extroverts. Among the 8 strategy categories investigated in the present study: meta-cognitive strategies, functional practice strategy, formal practice strategy, memory strategy, monitor strategy, compensation strategy, social strategy, affective strategy, no significant difference is found in the strategy categories between the introverts and the extroverts, exclusive of only "formal practice strategy", which is significantly different between the introverts and the extroverts, with the extroverts' average score much higher than that of the introverts. The attempted explanation is that the good extroverted learners have noticed the shortcoming of their personality in learning language, paying not enough attention to the study of language form, thus to improve their language accuracy, they attend to language form more than the introverts. As for individual strategies, significant difference is found between the introverts and the extroverts in some strategies, such as, for the strategy *"When my teacher asks questions in class, I try to answer them mentally to myself, there is significant difference between the introverts and the extroverts at 0.05 level; for the strategies *"I speak to myself in English, either silently or aloud" and *"I read newspapers, magazines, books, brochures, or pamphlets primarily to improve my reading comprehension", the introverts are significantly different from the extroverts at 0.01 level. The frequent employment of these strategies by the introverts is consistent with their personality. The introverts are always shy, unsociable, etc., but these characteristics do not prevent them from learning oral English. The good learners under the propelling of strong motivation can find appropriate ways to improve learning. The result of the present study proves that the influence of introversion and extroversion on the ability of oral English learning is not as big as it is assumed, thus both the introverts and extroverts have the potentiality to learn oral English well, as long as they can identify their shortcomings and merits in their personality and choose strategies in accordance with their personality to improve their oral English ability.Based on the findings of the investigation, the paper gives an attempted discussion on the following aspects: personality type is not a decisive factor for the success of oral English learning but a factor to determine what strategies to employ for learning; foreign language learning settings do not make much difference in the outcome of the oral English learning between the introverts and the extroverts; reading and listening abilities are important in improving one's oral English for both introverted and extroverted learners; memory strategy is also attached great importance to in improving oral English for both introverted and extroverted Chinese learners.The findings of the study provide us with some useful insights on the teaching and learning of oral English: increasing teachers' consciousness of influence of personality types on oral English learning; cultivating students' awareness of advantages and disadvantages of their personality types in oral English learning; changing teachers' traditional roles in classroom; creating a relaxed, harmonious and unthreatening environment for learners' foreign language learning.Limitation and suggestions for future researches are also discussed in this paper. Due to the constraint of the personnel and fund, the sample for the current study is limited, thus the result of the investigation of may be affected by the small sample. It is suggested that larger samples of investigation can be conducted to verify the findings of this study, to reveal more truth in the future researches.
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