The impact of ambiguity tolerance on EFL students’ language performance

Abstract

This study is designed as a case study and it aims to report and to explain the relationship between Armenian EFL students’ personality features and their ambiguity tolerance in different learning situations. Different elicitation techniques were combined to obtain data: questionnaire, observation and the interview. First of all, in order to achieve the primary aim of this study, the students’ degree of tolerance/intolerance of ambiguity was measured by the SLTAS (Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale, Ely (1995) which conceptualizes the construct of ambiguity on a continuum from more to less tolerant qualities. According to the SLTAS, out of seventeen students, 4 were chosen as the participants of the study where 2 of them were found more tolerant of ambiguity (MTA) and another 2 were found less tolerant of ambiguity (LTA). Next, 5 communicative tasks were chosen and used as instructional tools for obtaining the four students’ behavioral observation data. Further, after the students completed the tasks, their positive and negative emotions and reactions to ambiguous learning situations were reflected in and confirmed by one-to-one, semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study explain the relationship between the students’ personality features and their ambiguity tolerance. The qualitative analysis of the data revealed that the students’ emotions and their behavioral reactions to unstructured and challenging tasks are different depending on the degree of ambiguity tolerance and their individual personality factors.