| Under the heading of cognitive psychology theories, linguistic researchers have conducted a great number of studies to explore how language learners acquire, store, and process information to facilitate their second language acquisition. Therefore, a newly-developed inter-disciplinary subject, Cognitive Linguistics, came into being and has been flourishing. Among all the learners’ individual differences, cognitive style and learning strategy are hot topics studied by researchers. In view of that reading, as well as listening, speaking, and writing, is an indispensable part of English skills and a basic and critical instrument to improve overall English proficiency, many researchers attempt to study on cognitive style and reading strategy, and to discuss the relationship between the two factors. Although some significant findings have been carried out, the author finds that there are few researches taking English learners’ reading performance into consideration. Moreover, in previous studies, there still exist different findings about the relationship between cognitive style and reading strategy. Therefore, the author tries to continue this research and to make an empirical study on the relationship among the three variables.In this research, the author hypothesizes that there exists some relationship among EFL learners’ cognitive styles, reading strategies and their reading achievements. Based on this hypothesis, the following five questions are researched and answered in this thesis:(1) Is there any correlation between FD/FI cognitive styles and reading achievements?(2) Is there any significant difference between FD learners and FI learners in reading achievements?(3) Is there any correlation between FD/FI cognitive styles and reading strategies employment?(4) Is there any significant difference between FD learners and FI learners in reading strategies use?(5) Is there correlation between reading strategies use and reading achievements?The theories adopted in this thesis include Herman Witkin’s classification of cognitive style into field-dependent and field-independent, and O’Malley and Chamot’s classification of learning strategy into meta-cognitive, cognitive and social/affective strategy..The instruments involved in this research include GEFT(Group Embedded Figure Test) and a questionnaire on reading strategy employment. The subjects involved are the sophomores majoring in English in the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China(UESTC). This research employs the students’ CET4 reading comprehension scores as a means to measure their reading performance. The methods for data analysis include descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, and independent sample T-test.The major findings of this research can be briefly concluded as follows:(1) There is no correlation between EFL learners’ FI/FD cognitive styles and their reading achievements;(2) There is no significant difference between FI and FD learners in reading achievement;(3) There is no correlation between FI/FD cognitive styles and the total use of reading strategies, however, FI and FD learners show significant differences in some specific reading strategies;(4) Reading achievement is positively significantly correlated with the total use of reading strategies, however, in terms of each kind of reading strategies, only meta-cognitive reading strategies are positively significantly correlated with reading achievement, whereas cognitive and social/affective strategies have no correlation with reading achievement;(5) Some specific reading strategies are positively significantly correlated with reading achievement, whereas some other reading strategies are negatively significantly correlated with reading achievement. The present research aims at providing some implications and suggestions for both learners and instructors about how to improve English learners’ reading performance and offering later researchers some advices by pointing out the limitations of the present study. |
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