性格と認知スタイル L2学習への影響に関する考察

• Published in: 北海道英語教育学会 紀要 Vol. 9; pp. 49 - 66
• Main Author: 菅原, 健太
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: 北海道英語教育学会 2009
• ISSN: 1347-6343; 2434-0243
• DOI: 10.24675/helesje.9.0_49

Given ongoing interest in strategy instruction, teachers and researchers in second language (L2) education need to understand personality and cognitive style when diagnosing their students' learning progresses and difficulties. By understanding differences in personalities and cognitive styles, the teacher can prevent mismatches between students' styles and any of the dimensions that we will look at in this article with implications on teaching style and curriculum. Among the constructs of personality, that of thinness and thickness of the boundaries developed by Hartmann (1991) has been focused on in this study because it describes a broad dimension of personality trait with cognitive effects which has been considered to greatly influence the L2 learning process. In a review of Ehrman's previous studies, it can be inferred that the cognitive styles which relate to these psychological boundaries are field sensitivity and tolerance of ambiguity, both of which are essential for acquiring L2 for real communicative purposes. In addition, I also paid attention to EFL students who have differences in the thinness of their boundaries and examined their cognitive styles from classroom observation and talks collected through language learning counseling. Their reflections on EFL learning have supported the claims of Ehrman's studies that describe thinness of the outer boundaries as a signpost for the cognitive style differences. Further research is needed to test hypotheses emerging from the above case studies, to examine the relationship between other dimensions of the boundaries and those of cognitive styles and to analyze learner language produced by learners with those different characteristics, which may lead us to understand how learner differences influence the way they process L2. As a pedagogical implication, this type of study may lead us to develop a guide to diagnosing language learning difficulties and to inject appropriate strategies in terms of individual learner differences.