Cognitive Styles In Language Teaching

Based on literature studies of Field-Independence/ Dependence (FI/D) and the author's teaching experiences and findings, this dissertation puts forward a hypothesis regarding FI/D in foreign language teaching and gives a report of a case study. The results of the study have proved the hypothesis: the differences between FI and FD students exist in the classroom; FI and FD students have their own suitable learning or teaching methods; by some appropriate means can the cognitive styles of the students be made transformed to .some extent, and can the students develop their uses and rules of language in a better balance.Field-Independence (FI) and Field-Dependence (FD) are a pair of mutually opposite cognitive styles in language learning due to different psychological processes of information-processing. FI individuals are not easily influenced and disturbed by the external factors, are likely to relying on internal frames of reference for making decisions. They are usually relatively quiet and restrained but displaying strong analytical and deductive abilities in the classroom; FD individuals are easily influenced by situations and others in making decisions. They are usually active in such activities as group work and good at communication, and they are likely to learn language well by cooperation and communication.The case study in this dissertation carried out the research on the same group of subjects at three stages, adopted the research methods of test, questionnaire, classroom observation, and data analysis, contrasted the results got from each stage and found: the differences between FI and FD in the characteristics, which were mentioned in the literature, obviously existed in English language classroom; cognitive test scores of FI subjects were significantly correlated with their scores of College Entrance Examination (CEE), but not significantly correlated with their scores of Mid-Term Examination (MTE) and of Final Examination (FNE); meanwhile, the correlation coefficient between cognitive test scores and CEE scores of FD subjects was close to zero while the coefficient between cognitive test scores and MTE scores of them was a relative large negative number, and the coefficient between cognitive test scores and FNE scores of FD ones was between the above numbers. These results, combining with those of other means of investigation, indicated: FI subjects got more benefit than FI ones from the Grammar Translation Method dominated teaching in the teacher-centered andtest-oriented classroom in high school, but FD learnt better than FI ones in the student-centered communicative classroom; furthermore, in- the student-centered communicative classroom, by certain means to train FI and FD subjects could the differences in classroom performances and FNE scores remarkably fade. Additionally, at the end of the experimental term, all the subjects made evidently progress in language rules and uses. The above results have proved the hypothesis in three aspects and the dissertation has given a relative integrated argumentation over cognitive styles in language teaching.