Second Language Lexical Acquisition: The Case of Extrovert and Introvert Children
Jeffrey Rajik
Discipline: Education
Abstract:
This multiple case study investigated the influence of extroversion and introversion in the
acquisition of vocabulary in a second language. There were two child-subjects ages seven and eight
who are extrovert and introvert, respectively. Their first language is Kalagan and they were exposed
to Sinama through letting them involve directly in interactions in the language for twelve weeks;
there was no teaching of vocabulary. Children’s utterances as well as their behavior were observed
and documented using audio, video and/or anecdotal records. The naturalistic data taken from the
recordings were the bases of analysis. The results show that the extrovert child was able to utilize
more Sinama vocabularies in the course of interactions compared to the introvert child. However, he
talked with less reflection making some words he uttered not appropriate in the context. On the other
hand, the introvert child was able to comprehend more vocabularies compared to the extrovert child.
Moreover, he carefully thought of the words to utter in conversation, making his words appropriate to
the context. Thus, the results of the study suggest that these two psychological factors have a major
influence on second language vocabulary acquisition processes, in which extroversion has positive
influence on fluency, while introversion positively influences accuracy.
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