Iranian EFL teachers’ personality types and classroom management orientations: A correlational study

Abstract

Language learners’ achievement relies to a great extent on what goes on inside the classroom. The teachers’ personality types and their classroom management orientations play a role in such achievement. The present study intended to explore Iranian EFL teachers’ major personality types and classroom management orientations. Moreover, the relationship between their personality types and classroom management orientations were probed. Sixty EFL teachers were chosen through the convenience sampling method from foreign language institutes in Isfahan, Iran. The results showed that extroverted–sensing–thinking–judging type was the most frequent personality type and the interactionalist approach was the major classroom management orientation among Iranian EFL teachers teaching at language institutes. The findings of this study enhance EFL teachers’, as well as directors, of language institutes’ understanding of the personality type as one crucial factor related to EFL teachers’ behaviour management approaches. More implications of the results and future research directions are also discussed.

Keywords: Classroom, management orientations, effective teaching, Iranian EFL teachers, personality types