The Relationship between Personality Traits and Academic Achievements of Pakistani ESLs: Factors, Implications, and Future Directions

Abstract

This study intends to investigate the relationship between personality types and academic performance of Pakistani English as second language learners. The research design includes qualitative and quantitative data strands, which are processed and combined to answer the research question. Carl Jung's theory of personality types is applied, which is the most famous theory in the field of psychology. The study considers personality type as an independent variable and academic performance in terms of writing as the dependent variable. The population of the study comprises English as a second language (ESL) learners in Pakistan, with a sample frame of students from PAF College Fazaia Sargodha. A purposive sampling technique is used to select 66 intermediate students in grade 11, with 53 male and 13 female participants. The correlation between personality type and writing was measured at three levels of writing namely in grammar, in sentence structure, and in vocabulary. Researchers found no significant association between personality type and writing score in grammar, the relationship between personality type and writing score in the organization of ideas is also not significant however a weak negative correlation between personality type and writing scores in sentence structure was found. Overall results declare that personality type plays a less significant role in English as a second language classroom.