A Study Of Reading Strategy And Reading Achievement Of Non-English Major College Students In Computer-assisted Language Learning Environment-From The Perspective Of Field-independence/dependence

Reading is an indispensable and basic skill in language acquisition. Readers' cognitive styles, which are referred to as personal ways of processing information, will lead to individual differences in perceiving and decoding material one is exposed to. Therefore, readers with different field-independence/dependence degree will construct their interpretations due to various acquisition and application of learning strategies in reading processes, which will consequently result in different reading comprehension achievement. In the present study, Group Embedded Figures Test, reading strategy questionnaire and reading comprehension test, and interviews are conducted among 120 non-English-major sophomores from Zhengzhou University with an attempt to carry on an investigation into the effect of FD/I cognitive style on Chinese non-English majors'reading strategy use and to find out the correlations between the different reading strategy use and reading comprehension achievement.Descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation, independent sample t-test are employed to process the data collected by means of SPSS software. The study divided reading strategies into six categories--memory, cognitive, metacognitive, compensation, affective and social strategies according to Oxford's classification. The research questions are:1)what reading strategies do Chinese non-English major sophomores adopt in CALL environment? 2) Is there any significant difference in use reading strategies use between Chinese FI non-English majors and their FD counterparts? If any, what? 3) Are there any correlations between FD/I learners'reading strategies use and their reading achievement? The results show that:1)Among the six reading strategies, compensation strategies are most often used than any other types of reading strategies, which is followed by memory, metacognitive, cognitive,affective and social strategies.2) There is no significant difference in reading strategies use between FD and FI, especially in memory strategies use. However, the field-independent students use compensation strategies, metacognitive strategies, affective strategies, social strategies and cognitive strategies more frequently than those field-dependent ones.3) Cognitive differences have little effect on reading achievement. The overall reading strategies use has positive correlation with reading achievement, although the correlation was weak.Based on the above findings, pedagogical implications are suggested. Firstly, monitoring students'reading strategies use. In CALL environment, teachers should design teaching material and organize teaching activities in terms of cultivating students'autonomous awareness of employing reading strategies and improving their reading proficiency. Secondly, being awareness of students'differences in FD/I cognitive styles. Teachers should adjusting their teaching methods to corresponding to students'FD/I cognitive styles with the purpose of making up for students'disadvantages and enhancing advantages in CALL-based reading. Thirdly, widening and enhancing reading strategies training. In the process of teaching in CALL environment, teachers should help students with systematic knowledge of reading strategies and let them know how to put them into practice efficiently.