A Correlative Study Of Cognitive Style And College Student English Achievement

In the past two decades, the study of FI and FD cognitive style has attractedmany researchers’ attention. FD/FI has been frequently theorized as being related tosecond language acquisition. Second language education is a front burner issue inlanguage education field. Based on the review of the former studies, these formerresearches didn’t have unanimous conclusion. On the other hand, the study of thecorrelation between the cognitive style and language proficiency can do a lot of helpto the non-English majors’ second language education. So the correlation between theFI/FD and language proficiency is selected as my project, which has both theoreticaland practical significances.This research purpose can be generally summed as follows: figure out thecorrelation between the FI/FD and the students’ listening, reading, writing and thegeneral language proficiency and offer some useful advices to language education.According to the research purpose, the author sets up four research questions:1)Figure out the relationship between cognitive style and their general languageproficiency.2) Figure out the relationship between cognitive style and listeningproficiency.3) Figure out the relationship between cognitive style and readingproficiency.4) Figure out the relationship between cognitive style and writingproficiency.In this experiment, the author picked up205non-English majors as subjects. Thestudents’ FD/FI styles are measured by the Embedded Figure Test and questionnaires.English achievements were testified by the term examinations. Then the authorcollected the English scores from the original papers to make sure the veracity. All thedata would be analyzed through the SPSS13.0for detailed statistical analysis.As the experimental results show:1) There is no significant correlation betweenthe FD/FI and general language proficiency, and the FI learners have better performance in general.2) There is still no significant correlation between FD/FI andlistening proficiency, though the FD learners have better listening performance.3)There is significant correlation between FI and learners’ reading proficiency.4) Thereis no significant correlation between FD/FI and learners’ writing proficiency.The major findings undoubtedly provide some practical implications for Englishlanguage education and can fully prove that the study is effective to language teachingand learning. In the practical teaching process, the teachers should raise students’awareness of FD/FI and encourage them to adjust their FD/FI properly, which couldfinally improve the English teaching and learning efficiency in language learningprocess. Therefore, due to the limited conditions, the sample size in this research issmall and the test instrument isn’t so authoritative. In the subsequent studies, theresearchers should pay more attention to these aspects.