The Case Study of a Field-Independent English Language Learner

Abstract

The pictures about field dependent (FD) and field independent (FI) learners are confusing and there are mixed findings regarding the ability of the second language learners with these two different cognitive styles. To shed more light on the issue, this case study reports on a university freshman who was observed for three months in a grammar class at a university. Based on the pieces of evidence obtained through the observations, the private classes, and the interview with the subject, as well as the “Embedded Figures Test”, it was revealed that the student is a field-independent learner. During the interview with the learner it was also revealed that years of learning grammar in academic contexts did not result in the subject's skill in composing sentences. This article, therefore, suggests that despite the view that FI learners profit more from de-contextualized analytic approaches and formal context (see Saville-Troike, 2006), such an approach may not help the learners and they might have problem applying grammatical rules of the second language in order to make sentences which are semantically and syntactically well- formed. This is in line with Hansen and Stanfield's (1981) finding which found that there is a strong relationship between field independence and grammatical competence but not with communicative competence.