Within the context of student needs analysis, instructors can use valuable scientific tools to shape the personal profiles of learners and apply the appropriate teaching strategies to include them in the learning process. The Enneagram of psychological types is one of the universally recognized tools that can actively describe automatic personality patterns. The study of the Enneagram helps us to understand ourselves and the various factors which have contributed to shaping our personality while offering useful operational principles to interpret and react to the actions and words of others. It is a stimulating, inclusive tool which promotes more effective communication and dialogue. Moreover, finding those stimuli that will increase students’ willingness to learn a foreign language and analysing students’ cognitive styles are other useful means to identify inclusive strategies that can capture learners' attention and interest. This paper presents a case study involving 246 Italian students attending an undergraduate university degree course in Foreign Languages and Literature; participants were asked to take the SEDIG test (Stanford Enneagram Discovery Inventory and Guide) developed by Professor David Daniels at Stanford University, to fill in the Ehrman & Leaver questionnaire on cognitive styles, and release a sample of their handwriting in which they described their reasons for studying foreign languages. This educational action research study was conducted by teachers within their courses; the goal was to improve students’ self-perception and, consequently, their capacity to develop an effective dialogue with instructors and fellow students and, in the long term, to become more empathetic and inclusive. The objective of this research is to verify whether or not there is a connection among the three factors considered, i.e., students’ personality traits (in terms of Enneatypes and cognitive styles), the reasons behind the choice of foreign languages as a course of study, and academic success in terms of exam marks.
Enneagramma, motivazione e stile cognitivo: una prospettiva inclusiva per lo studio delle lingue straniere,
FLORA SISTI
2020
Abstract
Within the context of student needs analysis, instructors can use valuable scientific tools to shape the personal profiles of learners and apply the appropriate teaching strategies to include them in the learning process. The Enneagram of psychological types is one of the universally recognized tools that can actively describe automatic personality patterns. The study of the Enneagram helps us to understand ourselves and the various factors which have contributed to shaping our personality while offering useful operational principles to interpret and react to the actions and words of others. It is a stimulating, inclusive tool which promotes more effective communication and dialogue. Moreover, finding those stimuli that will increase students’ willingness to learn a foreign language and analysing students’ cognitive styles are other useful means to identify inclusive strategies that can capture learners' attention and interest. This paper presents a case study involving 246 Italian students attending an undergraduate university degree course in Foreign Languages and Literature; participants were asked to take the SEDIG test (Stanford Enneagram Discovery Inventory and Guide) developed by Professor David Daniels at Stanford University, to fill in the Ehrman & Leaver questionnaire on cognitive styles, and release a sample of their handwriting in which they described their reasons for studying foreign languages. This educational action research study was conducted by teachers within their courses; the goal was to improve students’ self-perception and, consequently, their capacity to develop an effective dialogue with instructors and fellow students and, in the long term, to become more empathetic and inclusive. The objective of this research is to verify whether or not there is a connection among the three factors considered, i.e., students’ personality traits (in terms of Enneatypes and cognitive styles), the reasons behind the choice of foreign languages as a course of study, and academic success in terms of exam marks.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
