Effects Of Personality Traits On Classroom Interpretinganxiety

Interpreting anxiety, defined as a fifth language-skill specific anxiety, is a new research fieldin interpreting studies. A few researches have been conducted on the sources, levels and influenceof interpreters’ anxiety, but the majority of them are literature reviews of the general situation ofinfluential variables such as cognition, psychology and language proficiency instead of empiricalstudies on specific aspects. Furthermore, most of subjects involved in previous investigations areexperienced and professional interpreters, while student interpreters who are more susceptible tointerpreting anxiety are usually neglected.This paper aims to explore the exact relationships between personality traits and classroominterpreting anxiety, and thus corresponding coping strategies are supposed to be available toadjust interpreting anxiety to a level facilitating interpreting performance. A total of285Englishmajors and translation majors from three985universities in Wuhan who have taken or are takinginterpreting classes are involved in the present study. Both their interpreting anxiety and profileof personality are tested respectively by Interpreting Class Anxiety Scale and NEO Five-factorInventory. Firstly, a correlational study is done between five dimensions of personality andinterpreting anxiety so as to make sure that there is a correlation between personality andinterpreting anxiety. Subsequently, in order to explore more specific relationships between themand to see if there is predictive power of personality on interpreting anxiety, a multiple regressionanalysis is subsequently conducted.There are three significant findings for the present study. Firstly, interpreting anxiety iswidespread among student interpreters; Secondly, there is significant correlation betweenpersonality as well as Openness/Conscientiousness/Neuroticism and interpreting anxiety; Thirdly,Neuroticism and Conscientiousness are predictable of student interpreters’ anxiety andinterpreting anxiety is in this way adjustable to a beneficial level for optimal interpretingperformance. Pedagogical implications of the present study discussed in the end would bevaluable for teachers and policy makers in paying more attention to part of personality profile ofstudent interpreters and in making the learning environment less anxiety-provoking as well asimproving more effective practices.