A Case Study Of Field Cognitive Style And Developmental Pattern Of Middle School Students' English Writing

Cognitive style is one of the most significant criteria for teachers to evaluate students' individual differences and it is also the most important factor influencing students' learning achievement.Language learning is a dynamic process,different contexts have great effect on second language acquisition(SLA)and performance.English writing is one of the most important dimensions to measure second language(L2)production and it is also an important element to evaluate the level of learners' language proficiency.Nowadays,accuracy,fluency and complexity are the three dimensions to measure L2 performance.The present study adopts a dynamic descriptive approach to carry out a case study about field cognitive style and developmental pattern of middle school students' English writing.The present study adopts a dynamic descriptive approach to carry out a follow-up case study.The combination of analyses in group mean value and individual variations is in order to investigate accuracy,fluency and complexity in the field-dependence(FD)and field-independence(FI)students' English writing.Based on previous researches,the author adopts the Group Embedded Figures Test(GEFT),which is revised by Psychological Department of Beijing Normal University,as an instrument to analyze the preference of cognitive styles of 100 Grade Two students from Foshan Haibei Middle School.According to the test scores,20 participants are selected: 10 students are considered as FI because they get the higher score and the other10 are FD because they get the lower score in the GEFT.These 20 students are requested to finish five times English writing tests in May,July,September,December in 2017 and January in 2018 respectively.By analyzing compositions and interviewing 6 students,the author applied dynamic descriptive follow-up case study to explore the developmental pattern of accuracy,fluency and complexity of FD and FI students in English writing.The present study addresses three questions:(1)What are the developmental patterns of accuracy,fluency and complexity in FD/FI students' English writing outputs?(2)What are the interindividual situation of FD/FI students?(3)What are the correlations among accuracy,fluency and complexity?This study reveals that:(1)Language learning is a dynamic process,the developmental pattern of accuracy,fluency and complexity emerging in both FD and FI students are not linear but wavy,development or retrogression emerged in different stages.(2)The developmental process of accuracy,fluency and complexity is supportive and competitive,the development in one or two dimensions can cause others stop or retrogression.(3)Students in different field cognitive styles may tend to develop in different patterns.Even students in the same cognitive style,they may perform differently between one and other.The findings of present study have significant implications for teaching and learning English writing.Teachers should make full use of formative assessment and pay more attention to individual progress at different stages.Besides,teachers should fully understand students' individual differences and develop effective task-based activities.According to the advantages and disadvantages of developmental pattern of accuracy,fluency and complexity of FD/FI students,teachers should help different field cognitive style students to consolidate foundation and learn from each other.The study has its limitations.It is a longitudinal dynamic case study,the sample size of this study is relatively small and the lasting time of the present study is relatively short as well as the study is not comprehensive enough.However,the results of this study are hoped to benefit teaching and learning of second language writing.