Differentiating Terms for the ESL Student

Teaching English to a mother of small children, I became aware that learning the language is not void of imparting an Anglo-oriented culture unless of course the person was just being stubborn in wanting only to accept her own ideas regarding child development. The topic under discussion was the difference between character and personality. The children behave a certain way and that defines his character. It is then his character, which lays the foundation of his personality in later life. Other elements came into the discussions like values, morals and behavior. What an excellent way to fuel a discourse and at the same time establish the differences between the different words cited above. Obviously it is in the teacher’s interest to know something about child development and psychology before he speaks, otherwise he will have a difficult time defending his point of view.

As a result of the discussion I learned from the student that at a layman’s level character might be considered synonymous with personality. It was only after some surfing on the web that we got to a website explaining how certain behavioral patterns influence one’s character. This in turn supplies information to the person’s psyche and influences how he will react in public but that reaction is not to be confused with “character”. The adult person is equipped with those character elements and projects a whole “persona” that is how the world sees him and distinguishes him from others. The sensitive point of the discussion was to get beyond the fact that his character can also be distinguishable from other people. I then went on to describe how her two year old had the elements of being an extrovert child but could not defend himself in an argument or show empathy towards another child, elements of a personality, which would be defined and define the whole person, once he had reached a certain development. It then became clear that the personality was a reflection of what characterized the whole person but character, on its own, did not.