The relationship between writing strategies and personality types of graduate Iranian EFL learners

In recent years, language learning research has been paying more attention to the factors that may  affect  the  choice  by  language  learners  of  language  learning  strategies  in  general  and writing strategies in particular to enhance their own learning. Given the socio-cognitive nature of  the  act  of  writing,  as  Roca  de  Larios  et  al.  (۲۰۰۲)  note,  both  writer-internal  and  -external factors have been reported to influence the deployment of writing strategies. Personality type, as one of the influential internal factors among others, is the focus of the present study, which intended to investigate English language learners’ writing strategies with reference to their personality types at different universities in Iran. To this end, a writing strategy questionnaire was  employed  to  tap  into  the  memory,  cognitive,  compensation,  metacognitive,  social,  and affective  strategies  of  ۲۱۰  participants.  The  Myers-Briggs  Type  Indicator  questionnaire  was utilized to identify the self-reported personality types of Iranian EFL learners. The analysis of the participants’ perceptions demonstrated a significant relationship between writing strategies and  personality  types.  Furthermore,  it  was  found  that  metacognitive  and  cognitive  strategies were the most frequently used strategies and memory strategies the least frequently used ones as reported by the participants.

Keywords:

Iranian EFL Learners , Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Questionnaire , Personality Types , writing strategies