Abstract :
This study was an attempt to investigate whether Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners were predominantly extroverted or introverted, and to seek any significant differences between males and females regarding extroversion/introversion. One hundred Iranian university students, including males and females, randomly selected from among students majoring in English Translation and Literature, participated in this study. Eysenck’s (1967) Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) was used to measure extroversion. The findings revealed that first, most of the students were extroverted and second, there were significant differences between males and females regarding their extroversion, that is, females appeared to be more extroverted than males. These findings might have some implications for second/foreign language learning. First, Iranian EFL learners in general, and females in particular, may be more probable to participate actively in oral communication and will probably do better in acquiring basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS). Second, unlike Iranian EFL learners in general, and females in particular, males may be more probable to succeed in learning literacy skills, namely reading and writing and in developing cognitive academic language ability (CALP). Finally, as learners are living in an Iranian EFL context, where they are provided with more opportunities to develop their CALP rather than BICS, it appears that all learners including both extroverts and introverts might benefit from being provided with more chances to practice their BICS.
