An Empirical Study Of The Relationship Between Field Independent And Field Dependent Cognitive Styles Of Second Language Learners And Their English Proficiency

English,an international language,has become a compulsory course from elementary education to higher education in China.Second language learners are basically required to have the ability to understand English materials,express themselves in English,and put their learning into practice.English listening,reading and writing are widely acknowledged to be the important standards to measure the level of English learning,therefore,listening,reading and writing skills play an important role in English activities.However,as far as previous researches concerned,not all learners are able to achieve the same high level in English learning,and female students tend to perform better than male students.With regard to this situation,researchers have done many studies about the influences of their age,gender,environment,motivation,teaching methods,and cognitive styles on English proficiency.With the rapid development of Cognitive Linguistics and Psychological Linguistics in the past few decades,cognitive style,an impressive individual difference,has drawn abundant attention from researchers.Cognitive style is a way of expression and attitude in activities of perception,memory and problem-solving,which can be defined as the manner in which people perceive,conceptualize,organize and recall information in intellectual activities.As far as the current researches are concerned,some psychologists have provided solid evidences that cognitive style is related to genes,earlier education,social relationships,the degree of learners' parents' democratic attitudes,and their specialty in school.Second language learners with different cognitive styles differ not only in behaviors but also in thinking.It is conceivable that there will be great differences between them in the disposition of listening materials,words as well as sentences in reading,and organization of structure and content in writing,which invariably produces varying influences on their English proficiency.Cognitive style,especially field independent(FI)cognitive style and field dependent(FD)cognitive style,has been a hot topic in SLA since the 1980 s.Therefore,the study is primarily contrived to explore the general characteristics of FI/D cognitive styles of second language learners,and the relationship between FI/D cognitive styles and their English proficiency.78 freshmen studying English as a second language in Jiangsu University of Science and Technology are selected to be the subjects.The average length of their English learning is around 8 years and their average age is 19.The experimental instruments consist of the Cognitive style Figure Test(CSFT)and the College English Band-4 Test(CET-4).The Cognitive Style Figure Test in the present study is adapted on the basis of the Group Embedded Figure Test which was revised by the Department of psychology in Beijing Normal University in 1998,with the number of geometric figures increasing from eighteen to thirty-six.The CSFT is a measurement of FI/D cognitive styles,and the CET-4 test is employed to measure the subjects' English proficiency.The CET-4 test is mainly composed of four parts: writing,listening,reading,and translation.The translation falls into the category of writing in the present study.The method adopted in this study is primarily quantitative analysis.Based on the research purposes,the writer brings together four research questions:1.What are the predominant characteristics of second language learners' FI/D cognitive styles?2.Does the gender of second language learners exert great influences on their English proficiency?3.Are FI/D cognitive styles of second language learners related to their English proficiency? If yes,how are they related?Based on the analysis,the major findings can be generated as follows: there is a significant difference among second language learners in terms of their FI/D cognitive styles,and most of them exhibit a stronger FI cognitive style;the gender of second language learners exert little influence on their English proficiency;FI/D cognitive styles are positively related to English reading proficiency,but there is almost no relationship between FI/D cognitive styles and English listening proficiency and English writing proficiency,in addition,FI learners outperform FD learners in the three skills tests;FI cognitive style is positively related to English proficiency,and there is almost no relationship between FD cognitive style and English proficiency.From the observations,the conclusion can be reached that FI/D cognitive styles,as impressive individual differences,generated a crucial function on the English proficiency of second language learners.As a result,the professional instructions combined with ample practices should be provided on the basis of cognitive characteristics of learners.