The Enneagram of psychological types is a human trans-cultural model aimed at promoting understanding of one’s self and others through the identification and accurate description of emotional, cognitive and behavioural automatic and repetitive patterns that develop from childhood in the process of adaptation to the environment. These automatisms act as a blueprint throughout the successive evolutionary trajectories of the individual, influencing one’s personal and professional decisions and leaving a lasting impression on relational and communicative modalities. For students, the Enneagram can act as a map which represents a coherent framework with which to outline and define recurring patterns of interpersonal communication. As well, it is a tool for deciphering the process of creating one's own identity so as to foster the possibility of making authentic choices for their futures and to orient themselves among interpersonal differences. This study presents a research project launched at the University of Urbino based on a sample of 144 second-year students enrolled in the Business Language curriculum of the Foreign Languages and Cultures programme. Data collection took place during the Intercultural Communication class. After completion of an individual test regarding the students’ self-definition of their profiles in terms of the enneatype (administered through an online questionnaire available on the Moodle page of the course), they participated in a seminar on Narrative Identity and Enneagram Types. During the seminar, the students deepened their understanding of this descriptive model of personality, which identifies nine principle modes of thought, feeling, action and communication. The same sample group was later asked to repeat the test more carefully and with greater self-awareness. Lastly, they were asked to explain the motivations that determined their choice of an academic path in foreign languages, and to describe their self-image (self- narration) in handwritten form. The latter served to gather a graphological sample for each subject. The reasoning behind this project is to encourage students to use the perception of their specific enneatype to understand the often unconscious motivations that lie behind choices, and give rise to effective or ineffective social and communicative behaviour. This topic becomes particularly important when considering the development of intercultural communication skills – meaning the ability to use relational skills based on an understanding of one’s self and others’ individual identity. The goal of this initial phase of the research is that of concentrating attention on the student level - despite being aware of the fact that the knowledge of such subconscious automatic patterns would be necessary on the side of the instructors as well - in order to verify possible relationships between enneatypes (with relative communicative styles and handwriting samples) and the study of foreign languages in terms of motivational aspects and objective data on the success in language exams.

The Influence of Enneagram Type on Communicative Competence

Flora Sisti
;
2018

Abstract

The Enneagram of psychological types is a human trans-cultural model aimed at promoting understanding of one’s self and others through the identification and accurate description of emotional, cognitive and behavioural automatic and repetitive patterns that develop from childhood in the process of adaptation to the environment. These automatisms act as a blueprint throughout the successive evolutionary trajectories of the individual, influencing one’s personal and professional decisions and leaving a lasting impression on relational and communicative modalities. For students, the Enneagram can act as a map which represents a coherent framework with which to outline and define recurring patterns of interpersonal communication. As well, it is a tool for deciphering the process of creating one's own identity so as to foster the possibility of making authentic choices for their futures and to orient themselves among interpersonal differences. This study presents a research project launched at the University of Urbino based on a sample of 144 second-year students enrolled in the Business Language curriculum of the Foreign Languages and Cultures programme. Data collection took place during the Intercultural Communication class. After completion of an individual test regarding the students’ self-definition of their profiles in terms of the enneatype (administered through an online questionnaire available on the Moodle page of the course), they participated in a seminar on Narrative Identity and Enneagram Types. During the seminar, the students deepened their understanding of this descriptive model of personality, which identifies nine principle modes of thought, feeling, action and communication. The same sample group was later asked to repeat the test more carefully and with greater self-awareness. Lastly, they were asked to explain the motivations that determined their choice of an academic path in foreign languages, and to describe their self-image (self- narration) in handwritten form. The latter served to gather a graphological sample for each subject. The reasoning behind this project is to encourage students to use the perception of their specific enneatype to understand the often unconscious motivations that lie behind choices, and give rise to effective or ineffective social and communicative behaviour. This topic becomes particularly important when considering the development of intercultural communication skills – meaning the ability to use relational skills based on an understanding of one’s self and others’ individual identity. The goal of this initial phase of the research is that of concentrating attention on the student level - despite being aware of the fact that the knowledge of such subconscious automatic patterns would be necessary on the side of the instructors as well - in order to verify possible relationships between enneatypes (with relative communicative styles and handwriting samples) and the study of foreign languages in terms of motivational aspects and objective data on the success in language exams.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11576/2657598
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