A STUDY OF L2 LEARNERS� METAPHORICAL COMPETENCE AND PERSONALITY TYPES: A CASE OF THINKING/FEELING VS. JUDGING/PERCEIVING PERSONALITY CATEGORIES

Abstract

This study explores the (possible) relationship between affective variables and metaphorical competence. The main objective is to investigate the difference between the thinking/feeling and the judging/perceiving personality variables and L2 learners� metaphorical competence. Participants are 90 male and female Iranian L2 learners who take the OPT and responded to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality questionnaire. They are divided into 2 categories of thinking/feeling and judging/perceiving in line with the results of the MBTI. Then, a teacher-made metaphor test is administered to the groups to check their metaphorical competence. Finally, to observe whether there is any significant difference between the 2 groups in terms of metaphor comprehension, an independent samples t test is carried out. The metaphor test is the dependent variable and the personality type is the independent variable. Results show that the thinking/feeling personality category has no significant effect on the participants� metaphorical competence, whereas the judging/perceiving personality category play some role in their metaphorical competence in that the perceiving participants outperformed the judging ones on the metaphor test.��� ����Keywords: metaphorical competence; personality type; myers briggs type indicator (MBTI); thinking/feeling; judging/perceiving.