UNIVERSITY OF TARTU 
                                                         DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH STUDIES 
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                                    STUDENTS’ PERSONALITY TYPES AND THEIR 
                                       PREFERENCES FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING 
                                                 ACTIVITIES: IS THERE A MATCH? 
                                                                               MA thesis 
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                                                                                                                     KRISTI TIHKAN           
                                                                      SUPERVISOR: Asst. Lect. ÜLLE TÜRK, MA 
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                          
                                                                                 TARTU 
                                                                                    2019 
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           ABSTRACT 
                 Finding activities that would motivate students so that they want to study and, as 
           a result, make them acquire information better has always been an important issue for 
           teachers around the world. One possible solution could be using teaching methods that 
           would match students’ personality types. The aim of this MA thesis, therefore, is to find 
           out if students, in fact, like the activities they should presumably prefer based on their 
           personality  type,  establishing,  thus,  a  connection  between  students’  preferences  for 
                                                                 th
           learning activities and their personality types. The study was conducted in a group of 8  
           grade students in Estonia and the DISC personality testing model was used.  
                The paper consists of an introduction, two main chapters, a conclusion, a list of 
           references and four appendices. Chapter 1, the literature review, covers the background of 
           the topic and outlines the previous research into the subject of using personality types in a 
           learning environment. Chapter 2, the empirical part of the thesis, gives an overview of the 
           study during which the students took a DISC personality test, responded to an initial 
           questionnaire, participated in a variety of activities and took another questionnaire after 
           the activities. The results are analysed and compared to previous research findings.    
                 
            
            
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                      TABLE OF CONTENTS 
                      ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................................... 2 
                      LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................................................... 4 
                      INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................. 5 
                      1     CHAPTER I. THE CONCEPT OF PERSONALITY IN LEARNING ............................................. 9 
                         1.1      DIFFERENT PERSONALITY ASSESSMENTS ......................................................................................... 9 
                            1.1.1    DISC Personality Assessment ..................................................................................................... 9 
                         1.2      PERSONALITY AND LEARNING ........................................................................................................ 13 
                            1.2.1    Personality Types and Language Learning .............................................................................. 17 
                      2     CHAPTER II: A STUDY OF STUDENTS’ PERSONALITY TYPES AND PREFERRED 
                      LEARNING ACTIVITIES ............................................................................................................................ 21 
                         2.1      RESEARCH QUESTION ..................................................................................................................... 21 
                         2.2      PARTICIPANTS ................................................................................................................................ 21 
                         2.3      PROCEDURE .................................................................................................................................... 21 
                         2.4      RESULTS ......................................................................................................................................... 24 
                            2.4.1    Personality test.......................................................................................................................... 24 
                            2.4.2    Post-testing questionnaire ........................................................................................................ 25 
                            2.4.3    Activities conducted .................................................................................................................. 28 
                            2.4.4    Final questionnaire ................................................................................................................... 29 
                         2.5      DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................... 34 
                      CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................... 38 
                      REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................ 40 
                      APPENDIX 1 ................................................................................................................................................... 43 
                         MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR EXPLAINED .............................................................................................. 43 
                      APPENDIX 2 ................................................................................................................................................... 44 
                         BIG 5 PERSONALITY TYPES EXPLAINED ....................................................................................................... 44 
                      APPENDIX 3 ................................................................................................................................................... 45 
                         POST PERSONALITY TEST QUESTIONNAIRE .................................................................................................... 45 
                      APPENDIX 4 ................................................................................................................................................... 46 
                         POST ACTIVITIES QUESTIONNAIRE................................................................................................................. 46 
                      RESÜMEE ....................................................................................................................................................... 50 
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                 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 
                 EFL – English as a Foreign Language 
                 DISC – Dominance/Influence/Steadiness/Conscientiousness 
                 MBTI – Myers-Briggs Type Indicator