The Effect of the Big Five Personality Traits and Parental Education Levels on EFL Learners’ Achievement Scores

Among the contributing factors to learners’ performance, personality traits and levels of parents’ educa- tion have been taken into account in this research. Accordingly, 440 learners, mostly pre-intermediate and a small number of intermediate EFL learners with the age range of 18-25, studying atIAU East Tehran Branch participated in this study. They were asked to complete the Big Five Personality Questionnaire as well as a socio-economic status (SES) sheet for their parents’ education levels. First, the measurement models for investigating the impacts of personality traits and parental education levels on participants’ achievement scores were drawn using the AMOS program. The data was analyzed by means of SEM through the CFA approach. The complete structural model for the Big Five personality factors, parents’ education levels, and students’ achievement scores fit well with the data while the measurement model for the levels of parents’ education did not adequately fit the data. Open-mindedness had a significant negative impact, conscientiousness did not have any significant impact, extraversion had a significant positive effect, agreeableness did not have a significant positive effect, and neuroticism had a slight posi- tive impact on students’ achievement scores. These findings showed that personality traits can be used to predict students’ achievement scores to some degree.