Abstract:

The aims of this study are:
(1) to consider the influence of some personal characteristics of the learner (temperament) on the educational process while acquiring linguistic material in a non-linguistic university and
(2) to determine those factors which could influence the formation of linguistic skills in learning foreign languages.

The research was done on the basis of the experiment, which was conducted in two groups of the second-year business students of different temperamental types for a year.

In order to exclude the age factor all the students who took part in the experiment were of the same age. According to the results of testing carried out by the authors at the start of the experiment, the entry level of the knowledge of the language (English) was alike.

Thirty students of the Faculty of Economics of the RUDN University were tested in order to determine the main type of the temperament: Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic and Melancholic. Following the results, the students were divided into two groups of fifteen. The first group of students included Choleric and active Sanguine types, the second group consisted of more passive students with prevailed Phlegmatic and Melancholic temperamental types peculiarities.

It is important to mention that before the experiment was conducted these students had studied the foreign language in the mixed groups.
The materials, tasks and demands for the both groups were unified.

The results of the experiment showed that the process of acquiring linguistic skills and knowledge is more efficient in the groups where personal peculiarities are taken into account rather than in mixed groups.

Keywords:

Temperament, sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, learning difficulties, learning activities, experiment.