A Study On The Correlation Between Field Dependence/Independence Cognitive Style And English Listening Proficiency In Secondary Vocational School

Listening plays a significant role in English teaching and learning. It is a prominent way in which second language learners not only acquire linguistic knowledge but also obtain new information. Thus, it is essential to improve learners’ English listening proficiency. But listening is a complicated interactive process influenced by many factors, among which cognitive style is one of them. Cognitive style presents the individuals’ way of responding and functioning in different kinds of situations. Field dependent cognitive style (FD) and field independent (FI) cognitive style, put forward by Witkin, refers to the extension of one’s tendency to perceive the environment in the cognitive activities. It is natural for FD and FI learners to choose different listening strategies which will lead to different listening comprehension achievements.This dissertation is expected to study the relationship between the students’ FD/FI and their listening proficiency; the strategies high proficiency listeners and low proficiency listeners use respectively; and the differences in the use of listening strategies between FI and FD learners.80students were picked up as the participants to take the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) to measure their cognitive style, the questionnaire on listening strategies to know their preference on the application of those strategies, and PETS-1to test their listening proficiency. The data was collected and analyzed by statistic instrument SPSS13.0. Through descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and T-test, the author finds out that field independent students perform far better than field dependent students in listening comprehension and FI/FD students’ listening performance has a positive correlation with their GEFT scores; high proficiency students use metacognitive strategies and cognitive strategies more frequently than the low ones, but there is no significant difference between the frequency of social/affective strategy use and the students’ English achievement; among the three main categories of listening strategy items, field independent learners tend to use metacognitive strategies more frequently than the field dependent ones do, while they use social/affective strategies less frequently than those field dependent ones.The findings of present study have both theoretical and pedagogical implications in English listening in secondary vocational school. First, teachers should make students understand their cognitive styles and make use of different teaching methods based on students’ different cognitive style. Second, teachers should use different kinds of teaching activities according to students’ cognitive style. Thus, students can be positive in learning and their listening proficiency can be improved as well. Third, teachers should foster students’ abilities to take advantage of a variety of listening strategies and employ them flexibly.