Methodology in Language Learning: Riding’s System

 

Richard Riding has been one of the main international proponents of cognitive style research. Aware of the manifold problems that this research domain has struggled with, Riding has proposed a powerful and parsimonious system of cognitive styles that, in his and his followers’ view, remedies the shortcomings of past styles research while maintaining the attractive features of the concept. The proposed taxonomy postulates only two superordinate style dimensions that subsume most of the previously proposed constructs.

 

ü  Who list–Analytic Style dimension, determining whether individuals tend to organize information as an integrated whole or in discrete parts of that whole (i.e., take a whole view or see things in parts).

ü  Verbal–Imagery Style dimension, determining whether individuals are outgoing and inclined to represent information during thinking verbally or whether they are more inward and tend to think in mental pictures or images; in other words, verbalizers are superior at working with verbal information, whereas imagers are better at working with visual or spatial information.

 

Wholists tend to see a situation as a whole, are able to have an overall perspective, and appreciate the total context. Who lists therefore are ‘big picture people’ and therefore they can also easily lose sight of the details. When presented with a prose passage for recall, for example, who-lists will do best when the title of the passage is given before rather than after the passage is presented because this title will provide them with an overall thematic orientation. Analytics, on the other hand, see a situation as a collection of parts, often focusing on one or two aspects only, and therefore providing the title of the reading passage will not enhance their performance substantially. Their strength is that they can separate out a situation into its parts, which allows them to come quickly to the heart of any problem. They are also good at seeing similarities and detecting differences. The danger for analytics, on the other hand, is that they may get the particular aspects that they focus on out of proportion, and thus may not get a balanced view.

 

The verbal–imagery style dimension concerns the way information is represented as well as the external and internal focus of attention. The former aspect refers to the extent to which one constructs mental pictures when reading or thinking, rather than thinking in words. The latter aspect has implications for social relationships: Verbalizers tend to focus outward and prefer a stimulating environment, whereas imagers tend to be more passive with an inward focus, content with a static environment.

 

 

Of course, most people are somewhere in between the two extremes with regard to the two style dimensions, often being able to benefit from the advantages of both. And, to complicate things further, the two style dimensions interact with each other, resulting in various combination patterns. Empirical research using this instrument has revealed that the dimensions are independent of one another, are separate from intelligence, and are independent of, but interacting with, personality

 

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University of Oxford - post gradual studies 2009 'English Language Teaching'

 

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