Do Personality Traits Predict Academic Writing Ability? An EFL Case Study

Abstract

Although the role of personality traits in predicting the academic performance has been extensively studied, the relationship between affective factors, extraversion and introversion, and academic writing has been a neglected area of research. In this study, it was tried to examine to what extent these affective factors could foretell academic writing ability. To do so, 30 EFL students participated in the study studying literature in junior level at Ilam University, Iran. The pupils would take the free writing exam and their papers were scored based on Barron's rating criteria (2004). After that, they were divided into two groups of extraverts and introverts through Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI). The results revealed that there is no significant relation between personality and writing ability. The findings refuted the cliché that the extraverts outperform the introverts in skills like writing.