CONSIDERATION OF COGNITIVE STYLES WHEN TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGE


Cite item

Full Text

Abstract

In the contemporary world, the study of foreign language became an indispensable condition for the successfulness of a person in the professional sphere. However, in the context of strong differentiation of the first-year students according to the initial level of foreign language proficiency, high requirements of the occupational standards sometimes become a challenge for teachers, that is why the search for learning methods and techniques contributing to the achievement of goal and tasks still continues to be relevant. 

The paper gives the results of the practical application of a technique of teaching foreign language taking into account cognitive style of the students. The scientific literature contains more than ten kinds of cognitive style based on different peculiarities of the information acquisition and processing. Field dependence/field independence is a traditionally distinguished cognitive style since many of the researchers associate the students’ academic achievement with the field dependence/field independence, moreover, the information about this cognitive style is widely used in teaching activities because of its simple diagnostics.  

However, the analysis of cognitive style in respect of field dependence/field independence carried out by the author in the group of the students demonstrated the necessity of a search for another classification, more individualized. To be such a technique, A. Bowie intelligence organization index was used, which was approved by practical teaching experience. The application of this index and grouping the students according to their cognitive style, as well as taking into account the recommendations for training students with the specific cognitive style allowed improving academic achievement and the students’ motivation for learning a foreign language.     

The author emphasizes and demonstrates the necessity of the individual approach to the selection and application of a certain classification of cognitive styles with further implementation of appropriate recommendations to improve the efficiency of teaching a foreign language.

About the authors

Vera Vladimirovna Popova

Smolensk branch of Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Smolensk

Author for correspondence.
Email: m.v.smola@gmail.com

PhD (Pedagogics), Associate Professor, Head of Chair “Philosophy, history and law”

Russian Federation

References

  1. Kholodnaya M.A. Kognitivnye stili: o prirode individualnogo uma [Cognitive styles: about the nature of individual intellect]. Sankt Petersburg, Piter Publ., 384 p.
  2. Witkin H.A., Goodenough D.R., Karp S.A. Stability of cognitive style from childhood to young adulthood. Journal of Personal and Social Psychology, 1967, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 291–300.
  3. Witkin H.A., Moore C.A., Goodenough D.R., Cox P.W. Field dependent and field independentcognitive styles and their educational implications. Review of Educational Research, 1977, vol. 47, pp. 1–64.
  4. Riding R.J., Sadler-Smith E. Type of instructional material, cognitive style and learning performance. Educational Studies, 1992, vol. 18, pp. 323–340.
  5. Carey J.M. The issue of cognitive style in MIS/DSS research. Human factors in information systems: an organizational perspective. New Jersey, Ablex Publ., 1991, pp. 337–348.
  6. Kolga V., ed. Kognitivnye stili: tezisy nauchno-prakticheskogo seminara [Cognitive styles: proceedings of a research and practice seminar]. Tallin, Tallinskiy ped. institute im. E. Vilde Publ., 1986. 250 p.
  7. Kholodnaya M.A. Kognitivnye stili kak proyavlenie svoeobraziya individualnogo intellekta [Cognitive styles as a manifestation of an individual intellect uniqueness]. Kiev, UMK VO Publ., 1990. 75 p.
  8. Kholodnaya M.A. Conceptual, metacognitive and intentional abilities as resource factor of intellectual development. Mentalnye resursy lichnosti: teoreticheskie i prikladnye issledovaniya. Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Publ., 2016, pp. 26–32.
  9. Shkuratova I.P. Cognitive styles as the regulators of a personality view of life. Pervaya rossiyskaya konferentsiya po kognitivnoy nauke: sbornik tezisov dokladov. Kazan, KGU Publ., 2004, pp. 256–257.
  10. Burdina E.G. Special aspects of relation between cognitive styles and intellectual productivity. Psikhologicheskie issledovaniya intellekta i tvorchestva: materialy nauchnoy konferentsii, posvyashchennoy pamyati Ya.A. Ponomareva i V.N. Druzhinina. Moscow, Institut psikhologii RAN Publ., 2010, pp. 48–50.
  11. Lopareva T.A. The Concept of Learning Strategies, their Interrelation with Cognitive Styles, and their Influence on Foreign Language Acquisition. Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo gosudarstvennogo lingvisticheskogo universiteta im. N.A. Dobrolyubova, 2015, no. 31, pp. 151–160.
  12. Tabachenko T.S. Cognitive styles of the students as the basis of personality-centered education. Internet-zhurnal SakhGU: nauka, obrazovanie, obshchestvo, 2010, vol. 2010-11, pp. 83–87.
  13. Tinajero C., Páramo M.F. Field dependence/independence and academic achievement: A review of research and theory. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 1998, no. 13, pp. 227–251.
  14. Zhang L., Sternberg R.J. A threefold model of intellectual styles. Educational Psychology Review, 2005, no. 17, pp. 1–53.
  15. Garton B.L., Ball A.L., Dyer J.E. The academic performance and retention of collage of agriculture students. Journal of Agricultural Education, 2002, no. 43, pp. 46–56.
  16. Danili E., Reid N. Cognitive factors that can potentially affect pupils’ test performance. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 2006, no. 7, pp. 64–83.
  17. Vrugt A., Oort F.J. Metacognition, achievement goals, study strategies and academic achievement: pathways to achievement. Metacognition Learning, 2008, no. 30, pp. 123–146.
  18. Bukhteeva E.E. The problem of developing a personal cognitive style. Vestnik RMAT, 2014, no. 3, pp. 104–108.
  19. Bakuleva K.K. Kognitivnye aspekty politicheskogo povedeniya izbirateley. Dis. kand. psikhol. nauk [Cognitive aspects of political behavior of electorate]. Sankt Petersburg, 2015. 169 p.
  20. Bowie A. Look inside your brain. Seattle: The Learning Styles Institute L.L.C., 1998. 240 p.
  21. Grossman D. A study of cognitive styles and strategy use by successful and unsuccessful adult learners in Switzerland. A dissertation submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B152TT, 2011.

Supplementary files

Supplementary Files
Action
1. JATS XML
Download

Copyright (c)



This website uses cookies

You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website.

About Cookies