ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics - Volume 63, Issue 1, 1984

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.

The relative contributions of lexical time expressions and time information in verb endings was established for three groups of readers : a control group (C) of native French readers, an experimental group of Dutch learners of French having received instruction emphasising French verb morphology (Emorph), and a similar group trained to recognize time adverbials instead (Eadv).

Sentences containing time of action cues in either or both verb morphology or in a time adverbial were presented to the subjects, who had to decide as fast and as accurately as possible, whether the time of action expressed was past, present, or future.

Results indicated superior performance when both information sources were present in the stimulus; when one of the information sources was withheld the results differed across the groups of subjects.

For the C-group morphological and adverbial information supplied equally useful cues, for the E-groups the cue value depended critically on the instruction program followed : for the Emorph-group verb morphology was the superior cue, for the Eadv-group the time expressions.

When in teaching French reading comprehension to foreign learners time pressure forces a choice between either teaching verb morphology or time expressions, we can now argue that there is no intrinsic superiority of one solution over the other. However, reasons of teaching economy seem to suggest that emphasing lexical time information would lead to the same level of performance faster.