independently, the persons will do it dependently (Mancy & Reid,2004).
One of the main contributions of the study is related to the learning process. If instructors know how field-dependent/independent style affects learning, learners can be informed about their individual styles and the strategies that suit those styles (Zhenhui, 2001). If learners are self- aware of the learning strategies that accommodate their individual styles, they can be able to navigate more efficiently in writing courses and attain comprehension of instructional material at quicker paces. Using the learning strategies with the best fit to their individual styles also result in enhanced efficacy in the sense that learners would learn instructional material with less mental effort and reduced cognitive load. Thus, the learning process can be more effective, leading to enhanced learning outcomes (Tabanlioglu, 2003).
The results of this study can help researchers understand whether awareness of cognitive style is important for writing a narrative. In this regard, this insight can assist the development of effective instruction, which meets the needs of both field-dependent and field-independent learners(Wyss, 2002). If instructional designers have knowledge of cognitive style and how these affect the way people learn, they can enhance their instruction using this knowledge. This study also could be effective to furthering research in the development of writing courses, which can enable different writing modes to be adapted to different individual cognitive styles(Khodadady, 2012).
The present study is, therefore, designed to fill the gap and find out whether field FD/FIhas any effect on narrative writing skill of EFL learners. The significance of this study is that, to the best knowledge of the researchers, few if any studies have investigated the relationship between narrative writing and field-independency/dependency of EFL learners. In the following lines, the research question is mentioned as:Does students' personality of FD/FI have any effect on their narrative writings?
2. Background
2.1.FD/FIPersonal Styles
FD/FIis a measure of cognitive style developed by Witkin, Oltman, Raskin and Karp (1971) around for over forty years. FD/FIis a study of the process of cognitive styles relating to how an individual functions. FD/FIas cognitive styles is bipolar. The difference between field dependent and field independent learners lies in the strategies they use for learning (Moore & Dwyer, 2001; Witkin, Moore, Goodenough& Cox, 1977). A person’s FD/FIa dimension of their cognitive style, or a place on a continuum. A person’s FD/FIcan change over time. According to Jonassen and Grabowski (1993), it will change over a life span. They argue that children are typically field dependents, and adults are more often field independent. This would imply that a person’s level of FD/FIincreases over time. Jonassenand Grabowski (1993) definedFD/FI learnersas the degree to which they perceive or comprehend the information which is affected by the surrounding or contextual field and describe the factors that FD/FIconsiders as:
1. How much the surrounding framework dominates the perceptions of item within it, 2.How the surrounding organized field influences a person’s perception of its components, 3. How a person perceives part of the field as a discrete form,
4.What the organization of the prevailing field determines considering the perception of its components, and
5. The extent to which a person perceives the events analytically.
The results of the way these factors influence learning determine whether a person is field dependent or field independent.
Vol. 6, Issue 9, December 2016 Page 87
2.2.FD/FI in Iran
In his study Salmani-Nodoushan (2007) investigated the Field Dependency or Independency on systematic variance into Iranian EFL students’ task-based reading comprehension tests. He selected a large number of students including university and high school students, majoring in English. He also administered the Group Embedded Figures Test to assess the learners' personality. His study demonstrated that individuals’cognitive styles made a significant difference in their test performance in the proficient, semi proficient, and fairly proficient groups, but this was not the case in the low- proficient group. In addition, this study showed that personality can make a significant difference in the participants’ performance on specific tasks such as true-false, sentence completion, outlining, scanning, and elicitation in all proficiency groups.
Nilforooshan and Afghari (2007) did a study on the impact of FD/FI in EFL learners’ writing performance.They found that there is a significant difference between FD/FI groups in writing skill in general and narrative writing in particular with Field Independent learners outperforming the Field Dependents.
2.3. Narrative Writing
Writing requires thinking and cognitive process requires thinking styles which allows the EFL learners use language for communication. It is a complex activity that requires a linguistic, sociolinguistic and cultural background. It is a process which is heavily influenced by constraints of the text types; these elements have to be shown in learning activities. It is a complex process of thinking, rethinking, organization and reorganization (Harmer, 2004; Raimes, 2002).
A narrative is a time sequence text type which is narrating the events which attracts the readers' attention. The sociolinguistic purposes of narrative essaysare giving information, persuasion and socialization. The structural components of narrative essay are the orientation, the complication and the resolution (Boucher, 2011). Teo (2006) noted that during writing narrative essays, the learners may have difficulties in grammar, main ideas and the content of the passage. Narrative writing is a process essay in which there are time and sequences of events. The events are classified in a hierarchical fashion. The teachers' directions can help the students to follow the narrative essay process. Therefore, in order to help EFL students understand the importance of time and events, the learners can be provided with complete Wh-questions that mostly begin with "Wh" words to generate ideas such as: Who acted as a doer? What did he do? Where was that place?When did they go? Who are the people in the story? Why did they go there? What is the main idea? How did the people in the story solve the problem? These Wh-questions can guide the learners to think coherently about a topic and write their narrative essays coherently. However, that form and style of writing the narrative essay influence the learners' thinking style. When students write narratives, they have a chance to organize their thinking processes in language and go beyond what they have just learned in the classrooms (Raimes, 1983).
Involving the learners in narrative writing needs not only their interests but also their experiences and motivation to follow to the processes in the story. Teachers respond to the learners' writings as the raters who care about formal structures rather than the content. Most EFL learners may avoid writingthe essay they have no background knowledge, experiences, enough vocabularies and mechanics of writing. They are always hesitant to write because they cannot generate ideas and they want not to make any mistakes. Therefore, the learners' process of writing can be improved if they know the components of critical thinking such as ideas, opinions and their relationships with narrative process of writing (Claxton & Murrell, 2003).
There is a need to an approach for teaching narrative essays that make the learners write freely without any anxiety in the classroom. One way to help students to improve their narrative essays