A Study On The Impacts Of Field Dependent And Field Independent Cognitive Styles On Translation Learning

Translation is a kind of high-order cognitive activity, in which translators’ behavioursmight be affected by multiple factors, including motivations, personal styles, mental stateand surrounding environment, etc. In recent years, numerous researches on translationteaching in China have turned their attention to individual learners. However, most of themfocus on translation teaching methods and curriculum design. Due to this fact, fewresearches on learners’ cognitive styles in the field of translation teaching studies havebeen carried out. Therefore, exploration of learners’ cognitive styles in translation teachingis worthwhile under the current trend of learner-centered translation and interpretingeducation.Field dependent (FD) and field independent (FI) cognitive styles mark two vitalindividual differences among learners in how they organize and process information. Thecurrent research aims to investigate the influence brought about by FI/FD cognitive styleson accuracy and fluency in the translation and the relationship between FI/FD styles andtranslation academic performance. Forty-one senior English majors participated in thisstudy.The findings of this study indicated that: In Chinese to English (C-E) translation:1) FIlearners’ average score on accuracy was higher than FD learners’, with a significantdifference;2) FI learners’ average score on fluency was higher than FD learners’, butwithout a significant difference;3) The score of Cognitive Styles Figure Test (CSFT) andtranslation achievement reached a medium, positive correlation. In addition, FI learners’translation average score was higher than FD learners’ with a significant difference. InEnglish to Chinese (E-C) translation:1) FI learners’ average score on accuracy was higherthan FD learners’, with a significant difference;2) FI learners’ average score on fluencywas higher than FD learners’, but without a significant difference;3) The score of CSFTand translation achievement reached a medium, positive correlation. Furthermore, FIlearners’ translation average score was higher than FD learners’ with a significantdifference. Thus, it can be inferred that FD and FI cognitive styles do have significant impacts on learners’ translation learning.Finally, the author hopes to shed some light on translation teaching and learning fromthe perspective of cognitive styles. For instance, translation teachers should adopt variousteaching methods to meet the demand of learners with diverse cognitive styles andmaximize learners’ strengths. This dissertation still has some limitations due to the scopeof the comparatively small sample and the author’s limited ability, and in-depth researchesare needed.