Is Field Dependence or Independence a Predictor of EFL Reading Performance?

Abstract

In this study it was hypothesized that field dependence or independence would introduce systematic variance into Iranian EFL learners' overall and task-specific performance on task-based reading comprehension tests. One thousand, seven hundred, forty-three freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior students, all majoring in English at various Iranian universities and colleges, took the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT). The resulting 582 field-independent (FI) and 707 field-dependent (FD) students then took the 1990 version of the IELTS. Using SPSS commands for collapsing continuous variables into groups and participants’ IELTS scores (based on the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles), four proficiency groups were identified for each cognitive style. From each proficiency group, 36 FD and 36 FI individuals were selected through a matching process. The resulting sample of 288 participants took the Task-Based Reading Test (TBRT) designed for the study. Data analysis revealed that individuals’ cognitive styles resulted in a significant difference in their overall test performance in the proficient, semiproficient, and fairly proficient groups, but not in the low-proficient group. The findings also indicated that cognitive style resulted in a significant difference in participants' performance on true-false, sentence completion, outlining, scanning, and elicitation tasks in all proficiency groups.