Personality and English Learning: The Case Of Some Students In Ghana

This paper focuses on understanding the role personality plays in English learning among some students in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Personality as defined by Ortega (2009), are qualities in a person or predispositions that have been learned through social experience. The personality aspects examined are learner beliefs, motivation and self-esteem because they are linked to learner abilities, skills and goal achievement respectively. To what extent do these aspects of personality support English learning? Is a question we hope to answer. Cook (1991) argues that learners have fully formed personalities and mind when they start learning a second language, and these have profound effects on their ways of learning and on how successful they become. Their capacity to perform assigned tasks, which requires mental and physical effort, is influenced in one way or another by their fully formed personalities, which in turn is influenced by the environment in which they find themselves. This implies that students who come to class will bring along attitudes from the society they live in, which in turn affects their motivation and subsequently their performance. These attitudes developed over years, could be either positive or somewhat negative. Data was collected from a sample size of 1444 Senior High School students in the Eastern Region.