CHRISTIAN NINA LPEZ

LEARNING STYLES
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

ESSAY ABOUT PERSONALITY AND LEARNING

Well, the topic that I chose is PERSONALITY AND LEARNING because I find it
very interesting and useful for me because Ill be a teacher and I want to make things
very good but first I have to know all the personalities that exist nowadays to
understand my future students. Then, I, as a teacher, have to know what kind on
method I have to apply to teach them.
First able, I going to explain the definition about personality and Im going to quote
some authors that explain it in a good and understandable way.
According to Freud, he said that Most people use the term personality to identify the
most obvious characteristic of a person, or to refer to that persons social skills But, he
was not the only person who worried about this. Psychologists are the professionals that
are worried and want to understand the behavior, personality and emotions that
everybody has.
Some of the psychologist try to explain why people with similar heredity, experience
and motivation may react differently in the same situation and explain why people with
different heredity, past experiences, and motivation may nevertheless react similarly in
the same situation.
We have to know that psychologist involves many aspects of human behavior. The most
recent theory that has been developed is the psychoanalysis that is based on the
assumption that there are two central elements that personality is based.
The two central elements are: Psychic energy what is called Libido and the
unconscious. In other words, we develop an ego and a superego as the structure of our
personality.
But now, what is personality?
When we talk with someone and comes the moment that we talk about someones
personality features, we say: She`s very cute or he is aggressive or my mother is
really sweet we talk about their personality, in other words, we talk about their
behavior and how the person is with us.
So, according to psychologists: personality is a system of parts that is organized,
develops and is expressed in a persons actions
They explain that definition in parts. First they quote system of parts that are the
emotions, motives, mental models and the self. It is organized because it is made by our
brain and develops all our emotions that we have inside.
Other definition is according to Funder, 2004, p.5 Personality refers to an individuals
characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the
psychological mechanism hidden or not behind those patterns

CHRISTIAN NINA LPEZ

LEARNING STYLES
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Larsen and Buss claim that personality is the set of psychological traits and
mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relatively enduring and that
influence his or her interactions with, and adaptations to the intrapsychic, physical and
social environments.
I agree with the last definition, because its true when they say everything is organized
and I think that we form our personality depending in our family, our society and our
values that our parents taught us when we were children.
And now, Ill explain about the personality types such as: Extraversion, introversion,
sensing, intuition, thinking, feeling, judging and perceiving. All of this is based on the
MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)
Extraversion: Its the kind of people who really enjoy being with people. They have a
wide circle of friends and like to spend time and do many thing with people.
They are outgoing, find easy to talk to anyone. They like to be where the action is,
taking note of what is going on around them. They like to experience the world in order
to understand it and what is most difficult for them is to listen to others.
For example, I know someone who likes to play soccer and every single day talks about
it to everyone, it doesnt matter if he knows the person, he talks with them about soccer.
There is no day that he talks about it, he likes to play it and Im sure he is a good soccer
player and everyday he posts on Facebook to play after classes a soccer match, in
Spanish is called pichanga. He likes to enjoy his life and make a lot of things in a
normal day. He likes to get new friends and likes to have experience in everything as he
can do or not.
I think that he is an extrovert person because he likes to show to everybody the person
he really is.
Introversion: Its the kind of person who likes to rehearse things before saying them,
they need privacy and quiet time alone for concentration. They like to focus and pay
attention in one thing to order their ideas, impressions or thoughts.
They want to understand the world before they experience it. Sometimes they are called
shy and people often see them difficult to get to know, as they are reserved and private.
In particular and the curious thing about them is that they have a small number of
special friends and their parents are worried because they think that they (introverts)
spend too much time alone.
I have a friend, she is 20 year-old and she is too reserved with all the classroom. She
just talk with me and with other girl. She likes to listen to romantic music.
One day she told me that when she is listening to music, she likes to lose herself in her
world, think that she is not here and make things that she cannot do.

CHRISTIAN NINA LPEZ

LEARNING STYLES
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Its interesting because one day I tried to do what she did and it was nice to lose myself
in my world and believe in my dreams. I dreamed that I can and get all the things that I
want. Everything is possible if you just believe in you.

Sensors and intuitives see the world in very different ways. Communication can be
difficult because they often fail to see each others perspectives and each believes that
his or her information is more valid.
Lets keep on focus first in sensors. In daily life they prefer to take in information
through their eyes, ears and other senses to find out what is actually happening, they
focus on facts and rely on what can be measured or documented, they like to do things
that are practical and can give up some tangible results, they can believe in their past
experiences and prefer established ways of doing things and they prefer to describe
things literally, they like specific answers to specific questions, for example, when
someone asks: What time are we leaving?, they prefer at three-fifteen rather than
sometime this afternoon
Some experts claim that they as a learners probably tend to focus on immediate reality
and like real-life examples, and learning about real people and things. Sometimes they
learn best when they move from the concrete to the theoretical in a step-by-step
progression. They value knowledge that is practical and want to be precise and accurate
in their work. They feel more comfortable when they know exactly what is expected of
somebody. They prefer explicit, detailed and specific directions.
An example of this is my friend Tony, he studies with me in the university and when is
time to the exam, he always post on Facebook if the exam is the following day and
many of our classmates confirm his question, so he calls me at 11 p.m. to ask me what
are the topics that we have done in class, I tell him all of that and then he tell me: well,
I am going to study just this three lessons because I think that this is going to come in
the exam. And for his good luck, in the exam comes just those three topics that he has
studied.
But intuitives, in their daily life they tend to think of several things at once, they like to
try a lots of new things, they look for connections and relationships behind most things.
They are always asking what does this mean? They always read the endings of a book
first, read the instruction manual only when they cannot understand and the most
common thing about it is that they like to fantasize about all the things that they will do
one day.
As a learners, they tend to look at the big picture to get an overall impression of what is
happening and often leap to a conceptual understanding of material. Daydream during
classes that are predominantly about giving factual information. They value quick
flashes of insight but are often careless about details. What is impressive is that they
love sentences that begin with: what if? They value being innovative, original, and
theoretical and for the last, they tend to write best when given general directions that
allow their imagination to work. Developing an unique approach to the topic is an
important part of their learning.

CHRISTIAN NINA LPEZ

LEARNING STYLES
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

According to Adrian Furnham, Chris J. Jackson and Tony Miller, focus in a problem in
perception:

Sensor:
Intuitive:
Sensor: (a little annoyed)
Intuitive:
Sensor: (more annoyed)
Intuitive: (very impatiently)
Sensor: (Angrily)

Intuitive: (also angrily)

When are we leaving?

Soon
Yes, but when are we leaving?
In a little while
Listen! WHEN are we leaving?
Dont you understand? SOON
Cans you answer a simple question! All I
want is a simple answer. At what time are
we leaving? At three-fifteen or at threetwenty?
What difference does it make? You get so
picky. Three oclock, four oclock its all
the SAME!

So, what conclusions can I get of this? Well, sensors learn to play with their
imagination, they think about the meanings behind the things and they do things in new
and different ways. In the other hand, intuitive try to turn some of their one day Im
going to possibilities into this is what Ive actually done realities, the find a way to
help someone to memorize facts or when they are doing projects or essays, they draw a
concept map before they begin. They can then focus on each point, spending time to fill
in the details.
I can say that I am an intituive person, because I like to dream all day long and thinking
in all the things Ill do someday in the future. As I explain some day in class, I pretend
to be the president of my country. Many people told me that I am so ambitious or that I
am so crazy to think in something that is completely impossible but I know that
everything is possible only if try, try and try and keep on focus in what you want
And for the last, we have thinking and feeling. Thinkers in daily life tend to stay cool,
calm and collected in situations when others are upset, they think its more important to
be fair and truthful rather than being liked. Sometimes they tend to tell people if you
think if you disagree with them, rather than some nothing just so that they wont get
upset. They make decisions based on logic. They like to weight up all information
objectively. Sometimes they remember numbers and figures more readily than faces and
names and they may be seen as overly blunt and uncaring. They consider truthfulness to
be more important than tact.
Feelers, in the other hand, prefer harmony over clarity. They find it difficult to disagree
with people and avoid situations that may lead to conflict. They take criticism very
personally, and are sometimes accused of being too sensitive, they like to be appreciated

CHRISTIAN NINA LPEZ

LEARNING STYLES
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

and approved of someone. They always try to see the other persons point of view. They
are empathic and compassionate and they view tact as more important than truthfulness.
In conclusion of this two types of personality, thinkers and feelers is that thinkers
consider what impact their feedback may have on others, for example, I can see your
point of view, but have you considered rather than youre wrong! but feelers let
them know how much someone appreciate them.

For example, time ago I had a friend, her name was Fernanda and we had a course that
was: Pensamiento latinoamericano and the days that we have those classes about that
course, she always showed her feelings to that course, specially to the teacher, I mean
that she was kinesthetic person and always show her personality to everybody and she
sang romantic songs. That was too crazy for many people and sometimes people spoke
bad about her.
So, now that I have the knowledge of the kinds of personalities, I will teach more
comfortable to my students because I know how their personalities are and I can
develop my classes in a formal and correct way. Always I have to keep on mind that my
students are different and I have to contend with that