Challenges and Prospects of Studying Cognitive Styles and Strategies of Bilingual Children

Abstract

In modern methods of teaching foreign languages, there is a special interest in the study and implementation of a cognitive approach to teaching. One of the significant characteristics of the cognitive process of an individual is the cognitive style. The study of cognitive styles of bilinguals can become a source of valuable information both for the theory of bilingualism and for the methods of teaching the second language. Cognitive style becomes the basis for a certain cognitive strategy. The paper deals with the range of problems arising in the study of cognitive styles and strategies of bilingual children, and identifies possible solutions. The main problems include the complexity of the definition of“cognitive style” according to its multicomponent nature; the need to take into account the peculiarities of bilinguals’cognitive styles when considering both speech perception and performance; undeveloped linguistic classifications of cognitive styles; the lack of generally accepted methods for the cognitive styles study on linguistic material, as well as for ethnocultural features of cognitive styles. Based on the analysis of some existing classifications of cognitive strategies it is concluded that the hierarchy of cognitive strategies of foreign pupils studying Russian is different from the hierarchy of cognitive strategies of Russian-speaking students, learning the Russian language asthe science