A Comparative Study Of Relationship Between Personality And English Proficiency Based Upon Traditional And CT-Led Research Methods

Individual difference variables influence how successful different individuals will be in learning another language. Among them, the most frequently investigated variables appear to be language aptitude, attitudes, motivation, etc.Traditional research methods examined the relations between target variables and language proficiency in the absence of other interfering variables that directly or indirectly influence L2 achievement. The variables other than target ones are all regarded as "noises" (the saying "noises" is cited from De Bot et al.,2005:19) which are isolated from or controlled by the research design to simplify research procedures. Unlike traditional research, Complexity Theory sees SLA as a complex and whole system influenced by a range of individual factors which interrelate and complement one another. The random interaction among all the factors within acquisition system can tell us much about the learning process. Therefore, it is unscientific to tease away any factor in isolation or anticipate outcomes from an examination of isolated parts. Based upon the theoretical foundation of CT, this paper proposed the CT-led research method for individual differences studies.In this paper, both traditional and CT-led research methods were used to test the relationship between three traits of personality (Extroversion, Conscientiousness and Neuroticism) with English proficiency based upon the same sample of 38 university students. The traditional research method tested the relationship in the absence of other variables, whereas the CT-led one tested the relationship in the presence of language aptitude, attitudes, motivation, learning styles and learning strategy use.Results of the traditional and CT-led researches both showed that Neuroticism was negatively correlated with English proficiency and Conscientiousness and Neuroticism had positive influence on the proficiency. In addition, the CT-led research integrated a Causal Model which indicated that personality was not a direct determinant of English proficiency, but an indirect cause of proficiency through two causal links, learning strategies and learning style. After comparison, the Causal Model was seen more meaningful in interpreting the structural relations among the seven major variables, which permitted researchers to possess a systematic and holistic view of SLA and might shed some light on future studies of individual differences.