Who Blogs? Understanding the Correlation of Personality and Blogging in Cultural Discussions

Second language (L2) teaching strategies have long evolved with changes in educational technology. In today's Web 2.0 environment, we strive to ensure students richly participate in computer-mediated communicative (CMC) activities so as to expand students' target language and/or target culture knowledge. One key element lacking in the literature is the importance of knowing who our students are in relation to what they do in the CMC environment. The Big Five personality inventory has previously helped researchers to identify the association of openness, agreeableness, neuroticism, extraversion and conscientiousness with social Internet use, particularly highlighting that those who choose to blog are high in extraversion and high in neuroticism. This present study of blogging in a L2 teaching methods course tracked students' blogging habits and commentary in conjunction with an analysis of their personality types. This mixed-methods study revealed that openness and conscientiousness were the strongest predictors of interaction in CMC cultural discussions. As we engage students in blogging, unveiling the role of personality will help educators to enhance interaction and learning within CMC cultural discussions. Knowing how personality types impact participation can allow for improved course and activity design and enhance active and engaged conversation to the benefit of all.