Acorrelation Study Of Cognitive Styles And Communication Strategy Choice

With the advancement of foreign language teaching in China, more and more linguists pay attention to the studies of communication strategies application by second language learners. The studies of communication strategies date from 1970s, focusing on how learners express themselves in foreign language. Many achievements have been accomplished in this field. However, the latest tend is to classify communication strategies on the basis of psychological process studies, which is very popular nowadays rather than just list some surface language forms, and which holds that communication strategies should be recognized as the production of cognitive behaviors. Therefore, this thesis aims to discuss the relationship between the differences of learners'cognitive styles and communication strategy application from the perspective of analyzing the cognitive styles of second language learners and communication strategies employed by learners with various styles in the process of language learning.Cognitive style, also called cognitive pattern, refers to the customary patterns which often emerge in cognitive process. Heman A Witkin is regarded as the pioneer in the field of cognitive style. Based on some experiments Witkin proposed the mode of FID (field-independence/field-dependence), which is of great significance in cognitive style studies. The present study is carried out on the theoretical foundation of FID by Witkin and communication strategy classifications by Nijimegen. First, Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) was carried out so as to judge the subjects'cognitive styles; then all the subjects were divided into two groups according to the GEFT results; next, the author applied a picture-talk activity to the display of subjects'communication strategy choice when they run into obstacles of vocabularies in description. In order to ensure the validity and scientificity of this study, SPSS was used for the data analysis.The present study holds that there is a correlation between cognitive style and communication strategy choice, i.e. in the range of conceptual strategies, FD participants are inclined to adopt holistic strategy while the FI participants are apt to use analytic strategy. This study is of great significance both theoretically and pedagogically. On the one hand, it, to some extent, may enrich the theories of communication strategies and synchronize studies of communication strategies with cognition; on the other hand, it may provide implications for foreign language teaching in Chinese context. Since the key purpose of the present study is to explore the correlation between cognitive style and communication strategies, the range of the study is limited to communication strategy use for lack of vocabulary.