Using Information-Gap Tasks to Improve Reading: An Analysis of Cognitive Styles

Abstract

This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of information-gap tasks on field-dependent (FD) and field-independent (FI) EFL learners' reading comprehension. For this purpose, 61 learners out of a total number of 120 existing intermediate learners studying at a language school in Tehran were chosen through their performance on a piloted sample Cambridge Preliminary English Test (PET) and subsequently on the Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT). Overall, there were 33 FD and 28 FI learners undergoing the information-gap task treatment. Furthermore, an independent samples <em>t</em>-test was run on the mean scores of the two groups on the reading section of the sample PET, thereby proving that they were homogeneous at the outset in terms of their reading. Another sample PET reading section was administered as the posttest of the study after each group was exposed to 15 treatment sessions. At the end of the instruction, another independent samples <em>t</em>-test was run on the mean scores of the two experimental groups in the posttest with the results indicating that there was no significant difference between the two groups' reading skill.