The Temperament and English Learning
I. Introduction
Our type of education swifts from teacher’s teaching method to student’s learning method. And learning has shifted from methods of teaching to learners’ characters. Researches want to seek a better solution to settle it. So how students can learn efficiently draw our attention. Famous Ancient Greece doctor Hippocrates[1]classifies the temperament into four patterns. There are choleric temperament、sanguine temperament、lymphatic temperament 、melancholic temperament. Different types of student show their different motivation、interest on English study.
Since last century, many researches concern in the field but their opinion are mainly about the categories of introversion and extroversion character. Sometimes, I wonder a fact that given the same cultural background,the same environment, the same native language, why some students can be successful but others can not. This issue makes me confused, so I decide to understate my opinion about this. For one thing I can make myself less confused, the other thing I can make me have a good idea about this and can avoid the problem as far as I can.
The whole article is divided into seven parts. In the first part of it, I introduce the main information of the whole essay. In the second, I state characters and respective feature. In the third part, I state that different response of different types of students in class. Maybe, some are active, and some are quiet and so on. Then I will introduce today’s education system neglect the diversity of the students and the reasons why this problem exists. The most attractive part is I will figure out how to settle this issue, in my opinion.
Ⅱ. The Introduction of Temperament
Temperament plays a decisive role in our daily life, especially in the study. With distinct growth environment、education background and personal character, every student has its own temperament. Through the analysis temperament of students, we can make our education more smoothly. The human community can be regarded as a system, holistic in nature, seeking survival. Throughout the ages, observers of human behavior have repeatedly identified four major patterns or configurations of behavior. Such holistic sorting of behavior patterns has been recorded for at least twenty-five centuries. In 450 bc., Hippocrates described four such dispositions he called temperaments—a choleric temperament with an ease of emotional arousal and sensitivity; a phlegmatic temperament with cool detachment and impassivity; a melancholic temperament with a very serious, dour, and downcast nature; and a sanguine temperament full of impulsivity, excitability, and quick reactivity. During the Middle Ages, Philippus Paracelsus[2] described four natures whose behaviors were said to be influenced by four kinds of spirits: nymphs, sylphs, gnomes, and salamanders.
Most twentieth-century psychologists abandoned holistic observation of human behavior for a microscopic examination of parts, fragments, traits, and so on. To them, all human beings were basically alike, and individual differences were due to chance or conditioning. [3]
Two German psychologists, Ernst Kretschmer [4] and Eduard Springer, were among the few to continue to view individuals holistically in terms of patterns. Inspired by their work, a modern psychologist, David Keirsey, [5] noted common themes in the various observations and the consistent tendency of human behavior to sort itself into four similar patterns. Another doctor continues to expand our understanding of the four temperaments through the unique contributions; including the core needs, values, talents, and behaviors of the four temperament patterns--as illustrated by The Temperament Targets?. These four major patterns are referred to as temperaments. They describe the ways human personality interacts with the environment to satisfy its needs. [6]
2.1. The Sanguine Temperament
The Sanguine temperament personality is fairly extroverted. People of a sanguine temperament tend to enjoy social gatherings, making new friends and tend to be quite loud. They are usually quite creative and often daydream. However, some alone time is crucial for those of this temperament. Sanguine can also mean very sensitive, compassionate and thoughtful. Sanguine personalities generally struggle with following tasks all the way through, are chronically late, and tend to be forgetful and sometimes a little sarcastic. Often, when pursuing a new hobby, interest is lost quickly when it ceases to be engaging of fun. They are talkative and not shy. For some people, these are the ones you want to be friends with and usually they become life long friends
2.2. The Choleric Temperament
A person who is choleric is a doer. They have a lot of ambition, energy, and passion, and try to instill it in others. They can dominate people of other temperaments, especially phlegmatic types. Many great charismatic military and political figures were choleric. They like to be as leaders and in charge of everything.
2.3. The Melancholic Temperament
A person who is a thoughtful panderer has a melancholic disposition. Often very considerate and get rather worried when they could not be on time for events, melancholic can be highly creative in activities such as poetry and art - and can become occupied with the tragedy and cruelty in the world. A melancholic is also often a perfectionist. They are often self-reliant and independent; one negative part of being a melancholic is sometimes they can get so involved in what they are doing they forget to think of others.
2.4. The Lymphatic Temperament