Abstract

JIMENEZ RIVAS, José Ramón  and  MORITA ALEXANDER, Adelina. Personal factors that affect foreign language academic performance in university students. RIDE. Rev. Iberoam. Investig. Desarro. Educ [online]. 2021, vol.12, n.23, e050.  Epub Feb 14, 2022. ISSN 2007-7467.  https://doi.org/10.23913/ride.v12i23.1085.

Academic achievement has been studied for many years in both private and public educational institutions and in local, state, nationwide and international settings. Determining which factors foster academic achievement could enhance learning. There are several studies regarding how personal factors influence learning. Nevertheless, few studies deal with personal factors and academic achievement in foreign language learning. This study aimed to determine whether a personal factor such as age, genre or self-direction fosters language learning academic performance in first year college students. The research used a cuantitative, transversal, descriptive and correlational design. 39 students of a public university in northern Mexico City participated in the study. Most of the participants were young women (66.7% aged 24.3 on average). Self-directed profile was measured with the Profile Inquiry Self-direction Questionnaire. This tool consists of 50 five-point-Likert-scale items and its Cronbach’s alpha equals 0.90. Statistical analysis showed that despite an overall adequate self-direction profile of the sample and the better grades of male students who in turn were older than their female counterparts, language learning academic performance and personal factors, age (rs= .101, p < .540 N=39); genre (r=-.387, p < .015 N=39) and self-direction profile (rs=-.0540, p < .7440 N=39), had no correlation.

Keywords : individual differences; language instruction; higher education; student achievement.