A Study Of Correlation Between High School Students' Field-independence/dependence And English Listening Strategy

Listening is an essential basic skill that students must master in English learning.It is important for high school students to improve their listening proficiency.Listening comprehension is not a passive and negative process,but it is an active and positive process.Different students have different cognitive styles.Cognitive styles affect students to adopt different listening strategies,which will affect their listening outcomes.In the present study,the Group Embedded Figures Test(GEFT),listening strategy questionnaire and listening comprehension test are administered among 186 senior three students to investigate the relationship between field independent/dependent cognitive styles(FI/FD),listening strategies and listening outcome.The major findings are as follows:(1)There is a marked relationship between students' FI/FD cognitive style and listening scores.To be specific,there is a marked relationship between FI students and their listening scores,while there is a weak relationship between FD learners and their listening scores.FI students show better performance in listening comprehension than FD ones.(2)FI students as a whole use more strategies than FD ones in the listening process,which shows that FI students have stronger strategy consciousness.In the three strategies,FI students use more cognitive strategy,while FD students use more metacognitive strategy.But they both use less social and affective strategy.(3)There is a marked relationship between students' listening strategies and listening scores.Students' cognitive strategy has a stronger relationship with FI cognitive style,while Students' cognitive strategy has a weaker relationship with FD cognitive style.This conclusion may be related to FI students using more cognitive strategies.In view of the above findings,this study will give some pedagogical implications about senior high school English teaching in the followings:(1)In the teaching activities,teachers should not only pay attention to students' learning,but also care about students' individual difference,such as gender,cognitive style,learning strategies,etc.In addition,teachers should develop students' strategy consciousness,and teach students how to use strategies.(2)Learners should not only know about their cognitive styles,but also understand the characteristics of cognitive styles.Students should choose appropriate listening strategies to guide their listening practice and promote their learning efficiency so as to improve their listening competence according to their cognitive styles.(3)Teachers should raise students' social and affective strategy awareness and prompt students to use it actively,because it can efficiently regulate students' emotion and reduce their anxiety and nervousness,which will make students finish listening tasks in a relaxed,pleasant environment.