Cognitive Styles as Individual Psychological Preconditions for Mastering a Foreign Language at the University

Проаналізовано когнітивні стилі як індивідуально-психологічні передумови оволодіння іноземною мовою у внз. З'ясовано. що когнітивні стилі характеризують індивідуальні уподобання щодо способів сприйняття, категоризації, селекції, аналізу, стимулів середовища; вони визначають різне бачення однієї і тієї ж ситуації різними людьми.The article analyzes the cognitive styles as individual psychological preconditions for mastering a foreign language at the university. It is noted that university studies should be based on the already established individual characteristics of students and, therefore, to take them into account. Moreover, the university teacher should try to identify the basic, main, system-specific individual features that should be considered the most. In view of this, the manifestation of the educational activities of students of such individual features as styles deserves attention. It is stated that cognitive styles are understood as theoretical constructs concerning the description of the stable forms of thinking, attitudes, understanding, knowledge acquisition, which a person demonstrates in perceiving the surrounding environment and understanding his relationships with this environment. Several style options (actually cognitive styles) are selected, and each person is tested for each parameter separately: any person posseses several styles. Such styles as the "dependence-independence from the field", "analytic-synthetic", "reflexivity-impulsiveness", "rigidity-flexibility", "cognitive simplicity-complexity" are the most thoroughly investigated styles. It is concluded that the cognitive style is a "cognitive" aspect of the individual, that is, the styles belong to the processes of managing cognitive processes, determining their intensity, sequence, extent of use, etc. Cognitive styles characterize individual preferences for the methods of perception, categorization, selection and analysis of environmental stimuli; they define a different "vision" of the same situation by different people. Cognitive processes like perception, memory, representation, thinking ensure the correctness and the speed of information processing, and cognitive styles coordinate the activities of these processes, determine the "convenience" of the methods of information processing, which according to the structure of knowledge a person can get. It is established that cognitive style makes a significant contribution to the students' educational activity, since its main function is the regulation of cognitive processes. As for the study of a foreign language, then different style preferences must not affect so much overall success, but how to determine the specificity of the structure of the learning success