Reexamining Foreign Accent: How Much Can Personality Explain?

Abstract: Previous studies have shown that learners’ individual differences (e.g., motivation, age) can impact second language learners’ pronunciation. This study focused on one individual difference that has received relatively little attention-namely, personality. It sought to determine to what extent subcomponents of personality (as defined in the Big-Five model of personality) account for learners’ foreign accent during quasispontaneous and unplanned speech. Fifty-one English-speaking learners of Spanish performed a speaking task that was scored for degree of accentedness. Results revealed that personality explained a considerable portion of the variance, and that extraversion and neuroticism were significant predictors of foreign accent. The discussion addresses the interplay between personality and foreign accent and examines implications for the acquisition of pronunciation in the classroom.