A Study on the Differences in Cognitive Style between English Majors and Non-English Majors 英语与非英语专业学生认知风格差异研究文献综述

 2022-01-04 08:01

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文献综述

1.Introduction1.1 Research backgroundCognitive style is a unique and stable style that an individual displays when processing and organizing information in cognitive activities such as perception, thinking, memory, and problem solving (Hao s behavior after thinking, organization and other internal psychological processes when facing a specific situation (Jin, 2007). Regarding the study, there have been a large number of successful scientific research cases at home and abroad, which are of great significance for better understanding the individual differences of different learners. Cognitive style, as a variable with individual differences in human performance, has been studied for a long time. As early as more than 100 years ago, psychologists such as Galton (1879) noticed that some people mainly represented and processed information in the form of verbal symbols, while others preferred to use graphics to represent and process information. This can be called the prelude to the study of western cognitive style. The term of cognitive style was first used by airport in 1937. The research on cognitive style began in the 1940s and was very popular in the 1960s. A lot of knowledge about recognition was formed between the late 1950s and the 1970s. The theory and model of knowledge style reached its peak in the early 1970s, and then gradually declined. The reason is because there is a lot of research in this field, and secondly because of the lack of internal communication (Yu ＆Wang , 2014). In addition, the shift of peoples research interest is not because the research in this field is not important, but because people have opened up more fields of psychology research. However, entering the 1990s, the study of cognitive style in the field of education has attracted peoples attention.Many scholars believe that different cognitive styles produce obvious differences in the process of second language acquisition. Actually, both English majors and non-English majors with different cognitive styles perform differently in the acquisition of a second language. However, is there any difference of cognitive styles between English learners with different majors? Based on the research of related scholars and quantitative data, this article intends to explore whether English majors are more independent than non-English majors?1.2 Need of the study The research of individual cognitive style has strong theoretical and practical value, especially in education (Bailey Onwuegbuzie, 2000). Whether students cognitive styles are strongly related to professional differentiation is also of great research significance. It is related to whether we can better understand students cognitive styles, learning processes, and teachers teaching strategies and perceptions, and also be related to how to optimize the methods and teaching process, improve teaching efficiency and so on (Gao Wang, 2021). English is a compulsory course for Chinese students in their education, and it is also a necessary skill for every college student to adapt to the needs of society after graduation. However, are there any differences in cognitive styles between English majors and non-English majors. What are the differences, and what impact does it have on their English learning? Therefore, we still need some investigation and research.Studying the differences between English majors and non-English majors can help better implement English teaching and learning in accordance with students aptitude.1.3 Research purposesCognitive style is the information processing method preferred by learners in cognitive activities, and we can understand it as a learning method (Dai, 2020). Among them, the two cognitive styles, field-independent and dependent, are considered to be most closely related to English teaching. Language educators have conducted a lot of research on field-independent learners and field-dependent learners, and have come to similar conclusions: field-independent cognitive methods are beneficial to foreign language learning. Studies have shown that learners with field independence have stronger communicative skills, while learners with field dependence have higher language proficiency (Zhu, 2002). The difference between the two increases with time. Professor Wu (2009) surveyed Chinese students and showed that the foreign language test scores of students with field independence were significantly higher than those of students with field dependence.Through a questionnaire, this research aims to investigate the cognitive styles of both English major students and non-English major students, and to explore whether there is any difference of the cognitive styles between learners with different majors.2. Literature review2.1 Theoretical researches on Cognitive Style The experimental research on cognitive styles and types began in the 1950s and prevailed in the 1960s. The earliest scholar who engaged in cognitive types research was the American psychologist Witkin. During World War II, when selecting a pilot, one must choose a person with a strong sense of space orientation in order to reduce flight accidents. Therefore, he designed a rotatable simulated driving room to see the basis for the subjects to judge the change in orientation. It turns out that some people are less affected by external factors and can accurately judge position changes through their sense of balance, while others are affected by external interference, and are affected by surrounding changes and things and lose the ability to accurately judge. Witkin (1981) refers to the former cognitive type as the field-independent type, and the latter as the field-dependent type.Actually, there is no very clear definition of cognitive style so far. Different research scholars have different classification of cognitive style which reflects the different research directions of researchers (Gao Wang, 2020). Here, we mainly rely on a more representative classification method-field independence and field dependence cognition to discuss the themes. For example, when students only consider interacting with other people to update their views on the school, which represents the field-dependent cognitive style, while the field-independent cognitive style is ignored at the time (Chen Zhao, 2019).Field-independent learners tend to stay outside of the external environment, do not pay attention to obtaining social information, and are not easily affected by external information. They are good at establishing their own learning goals and learning independently, and their learning is governed by internal motivation. The field-dependent learners are susceptible to external hints, lack of subjective initiative in learning, and their learning is dominated by external motivations (Rezae Farahian，2012). Since the 1970s, the research on cognitive types has continuously aroused peoples interest and has become popular. The understanding of cognitive methods has also been further deepened, from perception to memory, thinking, and even emotions and other personality fields. Among them, the classification standards are also diverse (Li, 2000).Riding and Cheema (1991) summarized more than 30 cognitive styles from the literature, and the classification standards are also very different and each has its own merits. It is worth noting that the field-independent and field-dependent models of these different classification methods are particularly related to second language learning, and have very important research value.Each person is considered to have a more or less consistent mode of cognitive function. The dichotomy a classification into two opposed parts or subclasses which has received the greatest attention where SLA is concerned is that of FD/I (Zhang, 2013). The so-called field is the surrounding environment, which has varying degrees of impact on peoples perception. Some people have little or no impact on environmental information, while some people are more affected by the environment. The former is a field-independent person, also known as an internal orientator, and the latter is a field-dependent person, also known as an external orientator (Xiong Wang, 2009). There has a large number of English learners in China, so researchers are also actively paying attention to learners cognitive styles and their language learning achievements. Liu (2014) conducted a survey of English majors in several universities such as Beijing Foreign Studies University and showed that field-independent students have significantly higher foreign language test scores than field-dependent students. Shi (2003) surveyed sophomore English majors and non-English majors from two military academies, and found that the overall cognitive style of military college students bias towards field-independent bias is positively correlated with CET4 scores. It is not difficult to see that the division of labor makes the change in cognitive style reasonable.Enormous empirical researches about the role of FI/D cognitive styles in learningwere addressed theoretically and practically, up to now, the researches on FI/Dcognitive styles in SLA are comprehensive and incisive both in theory and in practice,which can be concluded from the perspective of the role of FI/D cognitive styles in SLA combined with the available distinguished researches on FI/D cognitive styles.There are four type of researches based on the research findings. The first type of researches cares about the status of FI/D cognitive styles in learning, that is, which cognitive style is more beneficial to learning. Combined with the available researches,there are altogether four arguments. The most influential one is represented by Witkin and Naiman,who were dominated in this respect, and thought highly of the role of FI cognitive style.They hold the idea that FI cognitive style is superior to FD cognitive style and FIcognitive style multiply the success in language learning. In 1977, Witkin extended theresearch on FI/D cognitive styles from perception to more complex fields and providedthe evidence about the difference between FI cognitive style and FD cognitive style andsuperiority of FI cognitive style in learning. In his research, he pinpointed the differentapproach adoption as to FI and FD learners across a wide range of different contexts ,and found that FI learners perform better in mathematics than FD learners (Witkin, 1964).Many researchers have different opinions on whether major is a key factor in cognitive style differences. Here, through the relevant analysis of data and theorie, we would draw a conclusion whether English major students and non-English majors have significant differences between field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles, which also provides results for further exploration and enlightenment for whether it is necessary to adopt different teaching methods to deal with English majors and non-English majors in order to better adapt to their respective cognitive models.ReferencesAlhussain, A. M. (2012). Identifying teaching style: The case of Saudi college English language and literature teachers. English Language Teaching, 18, 122-129.Bailey, P., Onwuegbuize, A. J., Daley, C. E. (2000). Using learning style to predict foreign language achievement at the college level. System, 28, 115-133.C. Angeli, C., Valanides, N., Polemitou, E., Fraggoulidou, E. (2016). An interaction effect between young childrens field dependence-independence and order of learning with glass-box and black-box simulations: Evidence for the malleability of cognitive style in computer-supported learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 61, 569-583.Galton, F.(1879).Psychometric experiments.Brain,2,149-162.Ikeno, O. (2002). Motivating and demotivating factors in foreign language learning: A preliminary investigation. Journal of English Education, 2, 1-19.Mehrdad, R., An overview and integration. Educational Psychology, 11 (3/4):193215. Samuel, M. (1980). Obituary: Herman A. Witkin (1916-1979). American Psychologist, 35(1): 99-100.Witkin, H. A. (1964). Origins of Cognitive Style. New York: Harper and Row.Witkin, H. A. Goodenough, D. (1981). Cognitive Styles: Essence and Origins: Field Dependence and Field Independence. New York: International Universities Press.Xi, C., Zhao, S., Li, W. (2019). 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