| Reading plays a more and more important role in learning, through which students can obtained not only the new information but also other skills. It is said that the process and product of reading are related to factors like reading strategy, language profic iency and cognitive style. Cognitive style has great influence on the choice and use of reading strategies as one of those factors. Many scholars have made researches on cognitive styles or reading strategies throughout history. However, most of them took college students as subjects. As is known to all, senior middle school period is a key stage for English learners to form their own learning styles and to master learning strategies. Therefore, it is of profound influence on students’ ESL learning in the future to study on students of this period.Considering the factors mentioned above, in terms of cognitive styles and reading strategies, this thesis is to find the differences between arts and science students in senior middle school. Then explore their mutual correlation respectively, and it is of great theoretical significance. In addition, teachers could match their teaching styles to arts and science students’ preferences of cognitive styles and choices of reading strategies. What’s more, this study can also form a foundation of other correlative researches on different learning styles and strategies which take middle school stud ents as subjects.This study aims to find answers to the following three questions:First, are there any significant differences on FD/FI cognitive styles between arts and science students of senior middle school? What are their(arts and science students) separate characteristics if there exist?Second, are there any significant differences on the choices of Reading strategies between arts and science students of senior middle school? What are their(arts and science students) separate characteristics if there exist?Third, are FD\FI styles correlated to English Reading strategies respectively for arts and science students in senior middle school?It is mainly conducted in the form of survey, with 240 arts and science students in Senior 2 and Senior 3 from Pianguan Middle School in Xinzhou, Shanxi province involved. Two questionnaires were applied in the study for data collection: One is the Group Embedded Figures Test(GEFT) adapted by Yang Fumin us ing to confirm the FD/FI cognitive styles. The other is the reading strategy questionnaire created originally by Liu Yichun from Fudan University and revised on the basis of Oxford’s classification of learning strategies. Its Cronbach’s value is 0.875(over 0.7), which indicates the high reliab ility. The software SPSS 17.0 was utilized to conduct the data analysis.It can be concluded from the data analys is as the following:Firstly, there exist significant differences on the preferences of cognitive styles between arts and science students. Science students have a tendency to be FI style While Arts students tend to be FD style.Secondly, there exist no significant differences on the choices of English reading strategies in three categories between arts and science students. For science group, the metacognitive strategy is most frequently used and the social strategy is least used by comparing the means. But arts students apply cognitive strategies most. However, there are significant differences on some reading strategies tactics between science and arts. Science students use reading strategies a little more than Arts students.Third ly, in terms of senior middle school students in science and arts, FI cognitive styles are correlated to metacognitive reading strategies positively and significantly, but with no relation to cognitive and social strategies. When compared to arts students, the correlation scope between the FD\FI cognitive styles and strategies of science students are wider. |
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