A Study of Foreign Language Learners Cognitive Style in Multimedia Classroom Wang Qi Northwest...

A Study of Foreign Language Learners’ Cognitive Style in

Multimedia Classroom

Wang Qi

Northwest Normal University

Aims:

This study is designed to investigate the relationship between foreign language learners’ different cognitive styles and task variables inthe multimedia classroom in Northwest Normal University.

Outline of This study

Research Background research design statistical findings and analysis some suggestions

PartⅠ Research Background

PartⅡ Research Design

The Subjects: 62 juniors (17 male students & 45 female students) from English Department are served as subjects who are randomly chosen from 85 juniors with the same learning experience in multimedia classroom.

PartⅡ Research Design

The Instruments(1): Chinese Embedded Figures Test (CEFT) which is based on Witkin’s Group Embedded Figures Test. According to this test, the subjects are classified as field- independent (FI, 24 students), field-dependent (FD, 19 students), and field-mixed (FM, 19 students ).

PartⅡ Research Design

The Instruments(2): three questionnaires A. Learners’ Preference on Presentation in Multimedia Format (LPPMF)B. Learners’ Attitude toward Learning in

Multimedia Classroom (LALMC)C. Satisfaction on Learning Effectiveness in Multimedia Classroom (SLEMC)

PartⅡ Research Design

The Instruments(3):Each of the three questionnaires has 10 items inChinese. 5-point Likert scale is for getting data.The scores of them are ranging from 30 to 150. If the scores are higher than 33 (each questionnaire)and 98(total of the three) respectively, that shows students have positive attitudes towards learning in the multimedia classroom.

Part Ⅲ Findings and Analysis

Findings of Statistics of CEFT, LPPMF, LALMC, SLEMC

1. FI students get the lower scores on the two questionnaires (ALMC: M=31.85, SD=5.94; SLEMC: M=27.67, SD=4.75). 29% (total percentage) students of FI are satisfied with learning in multimedia classroom.

2.

Part Ⅲ Findings and Analysis1. (2) FD students get the higher scores on

the two questionnaires (ALMC: M= 32.97, SD=4.54; SLEMC: M=27.93, SD=3.96), which shows that they prefer to learn in the multimedia classroom. But they get the lowest scores on LPPMF (M=30.67, SD=2.87).

Part Ⅲ Findings and Analysis (3) FM students get the highest scores

on LPPMF (M=32.06, SD=3.94) and the lowest scores on SLEMC (M=26.88, SD=4.30). And only 5.3% students of FM are satisfied with learning effectiveness in multimedia classroom.

Part Ⅲ Findings and Analysis (4) The total scores of the three question

naires show that 71.2% students are not satisfied with learning in the present multimedia classroom.

Part Ⅲ Findings and Analysis5. A significant negative relationship between

FI and SLEMC (r = -.512*, p<.05) indicates that the higher scores the FI students get, the less

satisfied they feel on learning, and the multimedia environment has fewer effects on them.

Part Ⅲ Findings and Analysis6. A significant positive relations between FD and LPPMF (r =.516*, p<.05) / ALMC (r = .615*, p<.05) indicate that FD students depend more on the multimedia environment, although they need help to familiarize themselves with the presentation format in multimedia classroom.

Part Ⅲ Findings and Analysis

7. There are no significant relationship between FM and

the three variables. It is obvious that the multimedia environment has

the different effects on the learners with different cognitive styles. This study also finds that the ineffectiveness of teaching results is due to the teaching design of multimedia environment which does not adapt to accommodate different cognitive styles.

PartⅣ Some Suggestions