An Empirical Study Of The Relationships Between Cognitive Styles And English Language Achievements

Since 1980s, especially in the past two decades, research on language teaching and learning has shifted its focus from the teacher-centered to learner-centered mode, and great efforts have been made to investigate the influence of language learners'individual differences on their language achievements. As one of the major types of individual differences, cognitive styles have attracted many researchers' attention. This thesis investigates the relationship between students'cognitive styles and their English language achievements, and discusses implications for how to teach students with different cognitive styles.249 non-English major college freshmen participated in the study. Participants were asked to complete the Cognitive Style Figure Test (CSFT) and a questionnaire based on the FD/FI learners'characteristic provided by Witkin to see whether they were field-independent or field-dependent learners. In addition, participants' scores on CET Band Four Test were used as a measurement of learners' language achievements.The major research findings are:First, among the 249 participants, the number of FD learners is 107, which is slightly larger than that of FI,102. Female learners display more FD characters and male learners more FI.Second, compared with FI language learners, FD language learners tend to have a higher level of English language listening achievements. The difference is statistically significant. While FD language learners tend to have a higher level of English language reading, vocabulary and cloze achievements than FI language learners. The difference is statistically significant too. Total achievements of FI learners are considerably higher than those of FD learners.Based on these findings, pedagogical implications and insights are proposed concerning the practice of college English teaching and learning...