Personality Variable of Self-Esteem and EFL Reading Comprehension

The contribution of psychology to the process of learning, in general, and language learning, in particular, is so pervasive that there is hardly an aspect of language learning/teaching which could not be related to psychology. Among the psychological variables involved in language pedagogy, personality factors can have great significance. The aim of the present study is to determine if there is any association between the crucial personality factor of selfesteem (self-concept) (along with the sex variable) and the reading comprehension achievement of English major university students. The instruments used were Beck SelfConcept Scale (1967), the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language, 1992), and the Nelson Standard Reading Test (1977). The findings of the analysis of two-way ANOVA revealed that the independent variables of self-esteem and sex have a significant effect on students' performance in EFL reading comprehension although their interaction (selfesteem/sex) was not significant. Psychology and Language Learning The need for more systematic psychology research on language learning was fully recognized and clearly expressed by Carroll in the fifties. Carroll (1953) remarks, "we are fundamentally ignorant of the psychology of language learning. " He believes that educational psychology might provide helpful answers to pedagogy by carrying out research on specific questions of language learning. Among the psychological factors affecting the language learning process, the role of the 'affective' (Brown 1973; Scovel 1978; Brown 1987; Brown 1994), or 'learner' (Swain 1977) variables can never be neglected. Chastain (1976) suggested that there appear to be different types of factors which influence the learner: in other words, "learner variables can be divided into two subcategories: intrinsic learner variables and extrinsic ones. Schwartz (1972) lists the intrinsic motivators as anxiety, need to achieve, self concept (self-esteem), and aspiration; and the extrinsic motivators as socio-cultural influences and social reinforcers. Personality characteristics (e.g., self-esteem), then, are a subdivision of the intrinsic affective or learner variables. According to Chastain (1988), the affective domain plays a large role in developing second language skills than does the cognitive because the emotions control the will to activate or to shut down the cognitive functions. Chastain (1988) believes that of all the learner variables, the most influential are those related to the learners' emotions, attitudes, and personalities. As Rivers (1981) points out, once language learning becomes more than the study of rules and paradigms, and moves toward real communication of ideas, emotions, and aspiration, dynamic and personality psychology have a contribution to make. Although the personality factor is one of the most important attributes of a human being, its study was until recently ignored by most psychologists. Some Scholars believe that personality is what we refer to as the 'self'. Lindgren (1953), for instance, maintains that the 'self' which is the result, in part, of biological and social inheritance, and which is shaped by situations in which it finds itself, is what psychologists call the 'personality'. A distinction has been made between personality traits and personality states. Nearly all of the adjectives that can be used to summarize people's behaviour can refer either to characteristic differences