Definition of Cognitive Style

Cognitive style

            Cognitive style are typically discussed as if they were polarities, in reality, humans more likely show a tendency towards one pole or the other, with their scores on cognitive style tests arranged along a continuum between the poles. We use the term ‘tendency ‘advisedly. As with the state versus ‘trait’ distinction for personality variables, Witkin and Goodenough (1981). There is the question of the uniqueness of each cognitive style and indeed, whether certain cognitive styles are distinct from general intelligence (Roach 1985). Perhaps the cognitive style that has received the most attention in the SLA literature, starting with Naiman etal. (1978), who did find a link between it and SL achivement, is field independence and dependent.

1)                  Field independent/ dependence

People are termed field dependence if they are unable to abstract an element from its context, or be ground field in support of their hypothesis, Naiman et al. found that field independent twelfth grade student scored higher on imitation and listening comprehension task than did subject who were field dependentt.

Tucker, Hamayan and Genesse (1976) also reported that a trait factor which included field independence significantly predicted the France scores of Anglophone seventh-grade students on a standardizes  achievement test.

Thus, most of the available evidence offers support for relationship betweenen field independence and the second language learning success. Brown suggests that field independence may be important to the classroom learning and performance on paper-and-pencil test; however, when it comes to untutored SLA will be determined be by how well the earner can communicate with speakers of the TL, and empathy will help in this regard .it is interesting to note that of their three measures of language proficiency.

      Some researchers have suggested that the tendency to field independence or dependence may be culture bound. Frad and scarpaci (1981) found that the student from Latin American countries more field-dependent than their non latin counterparts. By the contrast, Hansen (1984) did find the cultural differences for this cognitive style. Hansen studied 286 subjects between the ages of fifteen and nineteen in six pacific island cultures. She found that Hawaiian subject were more field independent than samoan, Hansen’s finding provides some evidence for Cohen’s (1969) hypothesis that the more analytic style develops i highly industrial and technological societies, whereas field dependent is more typical of agrarian societies.

2.      Category width.

The cognitive style of the category width refers to certain people’s tendency to include many items in one category. Category width is often measured by pettigrew’s width scales (1958), which consists of twenty multiple choice items for which subject are asked to estimate some variable based on the information given. H.D brown (1973) and schumann (1978) have hypothesized that broad categorizers may formulate more rules than are necessary to account for TL phenomena.

3.                  Reflectivity/impulsivity.

Individuals who have a reflective cognitive style tend to mull thing over when making a decision. According to HD. Browm (1980) the matching familiar figures test (MFFT) (kagan et el. 1964) is most often used to measure reflectivity impulsive. Subjects are presented with a figure and then a number of facsimiles. Subject’s response time in making a match a match is considered a measure of this cognitive style. Subject who tak are considered longer, but make a fewer errors, are considered reflective ; those with the opposite pattern are considered impulsive.

4.                   Aural/visual.

This cognitive style refers to a person’s preferred mode presentation: aural or visual. Levin at al. (1974) observe that many learners could be considered bimodal, i.e. learning via one mode or the other does not contribute appreciably to a difference in outcome. But for a sizeable minority, approximately 25 percent of all learners, the mode of instruction clearly do influence their success as learners.

lepke (1977), reporting on a study of university students in the US learning German, claimed that when the student were taught through their preferred modality, they performed better . lepke (1977), France student at a junior college in Texas not only performed better when they had a choice of modality presentation, but also there was a substantial increase in enrolment in language courses over what there had been when student’s preference did not determine the modality of instruction.

5.         Analytic/ gestalt

Peters (1977) has demonstrated that children approach the SL learning task i different way. Some children seem to take language word by word, analysing it into component; others approach language in a more holistic or Gestalt-like manner. Peter’s subject Min, a young Vietnamese boy, was an example of learner with Gestalt style. Minh learned characteristic intonation contours for TL phrase before he learned to reader all the segmental. To be sure, Minh would articulate certain words in phrases or sentence, but he also used ‘filler syllables’ between those words as place-holders so that he could preserve the correct intonation contour. Peters portrays his performance as Minh’s learning the tune before the words. Ventriglia (1982) makes a three way distinction among beaders, brainders and orchestrators. Beaders are he analytic learners who learn the meaning of each word and then string them together to making meaning. Braiders are more holistic in their approach in that they assimilate language in chunks and more daring about using the in social context than thair more cautious counterpart, the beaders. Orchestrators, like beaders, are likely to be slow to start producing the language but use sounds rather than words as the building blocks.

Hemisphere specialization

In our earlier discussion of age related factor in SLA, we introduced the notion of lateralization. Lateralization is a process whereby each of the two hemispheres of the brain becomes increasingly specialized. Evidence for this differentiation comes from studying the behavior of patients who have had their left or right hemisphere. In all right handed individuals and approximately two-thirds of the left handed individuals, the left hemisphere specializes in logical. The right hemisphere is specialized for spatial relations and for task which involve matching some part of a schema to a whole. In fact, image be they visual, tactile or auditory are perceived and remembered by subjects using their right hemisphere even when they find the image hard to describe of name special talents of the left hemisphere (hartnett 1975).

How these observations relate to SLA is certain individuals perform relatively better on test Using one hemisphere or the other and thus are thought to be left or right hemisphere dominant. If this is the case, it might offer neurophysiologic basis for those individuals may be hemi left hemisphere dominant. Learners who are more field dependent and holistic in their approach may then be more right hemisphere dominantt. indeed, evidence at least for one of these associations comes from Cohen, Barent and Silverman (1973) cited in hartnet 19850. Although not exactly to relate to individual defferentces, there is nonetheless a body of neurolinguistic research which has been devoted to exploring the role of the right hemisphere in bilinguals. It stand to reason that if there is increasing lateralization as the brain matures, the way in which the hemisphere enter into the L1 And L2 process would differ. In particular since it is generally agreed that the language centre of the brain is the left hemisphere researcher have sought to identify the role of the right hemisphere in SLA (Selinger 1982; Genesee1982).

Ventiglia(1982) makes a three way distinction among beaders braiders and orchestrators. Beiders are the analytic learners who learn the meaning. Braiderers are the analytic learners who learn the meaning of each word and then string them together to make meaning. Braiders are more holistic in their approach in that they assimilate language in chunks and then string them in social context than their more cautious counterparts, the beaders. Orchestrators do not process of TL neither by word nor by chunk, rather they attend to the sound pattern of the TL, paying particular attention to the meaning to the meaning of the intonation contours initially.