EFL Learners’ Cognitive Styles as a Factor in the Development of Metaphoric Competence

Abstract

he study aims to investigate the effects of EFL learners’ cognitive styles on the development of their metaphoric competence, and to examine effective methods of teaching and learning figurative language. The study’s participants were 53 university students in Taiwan. Two measuring instruments were developed and adopted: the Metaphoric Competence Test (MCT), to measure the participants’ metaphoric competence, and the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), to examine their cognitive styles. The participants were separated into two groups, and each group received one of the following cognitive-oriented methods: instruction adopting conceptual metaphors (CM) or instruction involving metaphoric mappings (MM). The effects of learning, including the participants’ performance on awareness and retention, were cross-examined with the participants’ cognitive styles. Findings from the study showed that learners with a holistic/field-dependent cognitive style benefited more from CM instruction, while learners with an analytic/field-independent cognitive style performed better when receiving MM instruction. Moreover, through both methods of instruction, learners with an analytic/field-independent cognitive style improved significantly in the delayed posttest; such a finding suggests that learners with a field-independent cognitive style tend to be more reflective in what they have learned. These findings provide new insight into aspects of figurative language studies and pedagogical applications.