An Investigation Into The Influence Of Non-English Majors’ Cognitive Styles On Language Attrition

The present study has investigated the relationship between English attrition and college graduated students’cognitive styles especially the FID cognitive style through quantitative method. The research questions aredisplayed as follows:(1)As for the FID cognitive styles of34subjects，which type of cognitive styles is the leading one andwhich is the subordinate one?(2)Is there any attrition in English after the34subjects finish their systematical English learning? If so,which part of ability including listening, reading, and writing are more inclined to suffer from English attrition?(3) Which type of cognitive styles is better at resisting listening, reading, writing and total score attritionrespectively?Based on the research questions above, the general content of this study are displayed following: Firstly, thecognitive styles of subjects and the distribution of cognitive styles are studied by the GEFT test, The scores ofTest1are collected by the basic information questionnaire, which are the scores they got in their freshman yearand sophomore year. And the scores of Test2are collected via CET-4. Then compare the scores of Test1andTest2. If the scores decrease, the subjects have undergone attrition. Lastly, the analyzing data indicates theinfluences of FID cognitive styles on English attrition.Later, the findings are concluded as follows: The cognitive style of Chinese non-English major students canbe divided into two parts: FI cognitive style and FD cognitive style. FI cognitive style is the leading one, and theFD cognitive style is the subordinate one; The34subjects in this study suffered from English attrition.Compared with reading and listening skills, writing skill is more vulnerable to suffer English attrition. And themaintenance of listening skill is better than that of writing skill but worse than that of reading skill; FD cognitivestyle tends to resist listening attrition, reading attrition and total score attrition; FI cognitive style tends to resistwriting attrition.The present study shows that FI and FD cognitive styles have some slight influence on English attrition.Based on the results in this study, the author provides some suggestions for resisting language attrition, hoping tobe valuable for language learning and teaching.