A Study On The Characteristics And Stability Of Inter-Field Cognitive Style Of Non-English Majors

Field cognitive style was first proposed by American psychologist Witkin in 1962.He noted that field cognitive style is a continuum,and defined its two extremes as field dependence(FD)and field independence(FI)according to the degree of individuals' dependence on the external environment.Studies on learners' differences have an increasing popularity since classroom teaching changed from the teacher-centered model to the student-centered model.As an important factor of individual differences,field cognitive style has also attracted wide attention.A multitude of researches on the relationship between field cognitive style and second/foreign language acquisition have been carried out at home and abroad,which have great theoretical value and practical significance.These studies are mainly based on the dichotomy of field cognitive style.However,with the in-depth study of field cognitive style,the controversy about the dichotomy of field cognitive style has been aroused among scholars.They(e.g.,Brown,1987;Qin,1997)deemed that some people are not completely FD or FI learners,but tend to be in between.Although this hypothesis has been acknowledged by some scholars,inter-field cognitive style is still rarely explored and discussed.Based on the above issues,200 sophomores of non-English majors were selected as participants of this study and were divided into three groups: FD,inter-field cognitive style and FI according to Chapelle's(1992)“three-part” division of field cognitive style.Firstly,this paper intends to explore the correlation between different types of cognitive styles,English proficiency and LLS use,and try to find out the characteristics of inter-field cognitive style on the basis of its relationship with English achievements and LLS use.Then,the participants with inter-field cognition style are given classroom instruction of LLS to explore the stability of inter-field cognitive style.Through analyzing the data and discussing the results,four main conclusions are drawn as follows:1)FD is positively correlated with listening grades(r=0.363,p=0.003)negatively correlated with reading grades(r=0.356,p=0.031),but there is no significant correlation between FD and writing grades(r=0.167,p=0.325);Inter-field cognitive style is significantly and positively correlated with reading(r=0.333,p=0.044)and writing grades(r=0.254,p=0.038),but is negatively correlated with listening grades(r=-0.103,p=0.405);FI is positively correlated with reading(r=0.299,p=0.003)and writing grades(r=0.203,p=0.047),but there is no significant correlation between FI and listening grades(r=0.143,p=0.164).These findings demonstrate that three types of cognitive styles have different degrees of correlation with English achievements.2)Three types of field cognitive styles are significantly correlated with compensation strategies,but are weakly correlated with affective strategies.In addition,FD is most significantly correlated with social strategies(r=0.383,p=0.019);inter-field cognitive style is most significantly correlated with meta-cognitive strategies(r=0.397,p=0.001);FI is significantly related to cognitive strategies(r=0.211,p=0.039).Based on Oxford's(1990)interpretation of LLS,the above results disclose that FD learners are more likely to cooperate with others,while FI learners are better at analyzing and reasoning;learners of inter-field cognitive style usually make plans and evaluation for their own learning.This result is in line with Witkin's description of the characteristics of FD and FI.3)Through analyzing the correlation between inter-field cognitive style and English proficiency and the correlation between inter-field cognitive style and LLS use,this study revealed that inter-field cognitive style has the characteristics of both FD and FI,which is in line with Brown's conjecture.Moreover,inter-field cognitive style has the tendency to transform into FI.4)Inter-field subjects' EFT grades and the frequency of using learning strategies in the delayed post-test are significantly higher(t<0,p<0.05)than those in the pretest,but there is no significant differences(t=-9.00,p=0.375)of the English proficiency.This finding illustrates that the inter-field cognitive style changes with the change of learning strategies,which coincides with Wang's(2010)conjecture that inter-field cognitive style is not stable.Therefore,according to different students' field cognitive styles and the characteristics of each type of field cognitive styles,language teachers should adopt appropriate teaching guidance and give them different tasks so as to improve teaching effectiveness.Because of the uniqueness and instability of the inter-field cognitive style,teachers should strengthen their understanding of inter-field cognitive style and give students corresponding strategic guidance.Additionally,students should make full use of the advantages of their own cognitive style and make up for the shortcomings of their own style by learning other styles.