Article published In:
ITL - International Journal of Applied LinguisticsVol. 63 (1984) ► pp.1–21
The Role of Field Independence in Foreign Language Instruction
Based on the educational implications of field (in)dependence as described by Witkin et al. (1977), a series of hypotheses are formulated concerning the role of FI in L2-learning with different methods. Most existing L2-research, in contrast, has studied FI, usually assessed with the EFT, as an aptitude for learning with any particular teaching method, and has yielded somewhat inconsistent results, with a tendency to mild positive correlations between FI and L2-achievement. It is argued that FI in L2-learning should be viewed in the aptitude-treatment interaction paradigm and a series of suggestions are made concerning the assessment of FI as well as the design and the outcome measures for such interaction research.
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