The Effects Of Cognitive Style On Second Language Acquisition

Cognitive style is a term used to refer to the manner in which people perceive, conceptualize, organize and recall information. In the past two or three decades, some psychologists, educationalists and applied linguists made extensive research on the relationship between Field Dependence/Field Independence (FD/I) and the second language acquisition (SLA), but the results were widely divergent.Generally speaking, as a cognitive style, Field Dependence (FD) style is associated with skill in interpersonal relations and the ability to embed parts into the whole field; in contrast, Field Independence (FI) style is the ability to disembed or restructure visual stimuli, termed "cognitive restructuring".As early as 1950s, American psychologist Witkin divided FD and FI styles. His earliest research method to divide FD and FI style is to test the individuals' perception in tilted rooms. Latter, he chose another easier method of Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT), that is to say, showing a simple figure to the subject, then another more complicated figure. At this moment, it seems that the simple figure disappears because all of its' lines have been embedded in the complex one. The subject is asked to identify the...