The Relationship between Iranian EFL learners' Metaphorical Competence and Personality Type

Abstract

The present study tried to find out the relationship between Iranian EFL learners' metaphorical competence and their personality traits.  To this end, 120 male and female EFL students were selected in order to participate in this study, based on their performance on English language proficiency test. They were native speakers of Azeri. They studied English at English language institute in Tabriz, Iran. The instruments for the present study were a personality type questionnaire and a metaphor test. Based on their scores of these two subscales, they were assigned to two different groups of extroverts and introverts.  In order to collect the data of the metaphorical competence, the students' scores on metaphor test was collected. The Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated and probe a significant relationship between metaphorical competence and Iranian EFL learners' personality types. The results of one-way ANOVA also indicated a significant difference between introvert and extrovert personality type and EFL learners' metaphorical competence.