Exploring The Relationships Among Achievement Goal Orientations, Field Dependence/Independence And English Academic Performance

Achievement goal orientations, students' reasons for engaging in or avoiding achievement-directed behavior, are very important because they are the basis for how students define their own competence and they are the very beginning of learning. Equally significant is field dependence/independence, a learning and cognitive style, which determines the way in which people think and process information and which indirectly defines which strategies one uses to learn and what kind of environment or course is the most suitable. However, there are confusing concepts concerning the relationships among four components of achievement goal orientations, i.e., mastery approach goal, mastery avoidance goal, performance approach goal, and performance avoidance goal. And almost all the research deals with achievement goal orientations and field dependence/independence separately. What is more, research on achievement goal orientations and field dependence/independence has been carried out in the field of psychology, so their influences on second language learning have been neglected.This thesis employs Dweck's theories of achievement goal orientations and Witkin's theories of field dependence/independence to investigate gender differences in achievement goal orientations, field dependence/independence and English academic performance; relationships among four components of achievement goal orientations; and relationships among achievement goal orientations, field dependence/independence and English academic performance. Subjects in this research study are divided into different groups according to the criteria to determine one's achievement goal orientations and field dependence/independence. In this study, a questionnaire, an Embedded Figures Test and an English test are used to collect the data and statistical analyses are processed with SPSS (Statistic Package of Social Sciences). Research studies suggest that male subjects are more motivated to achieve success, and categorically more field independent than their female counterparts. As...