Thinking Styles of Preparatory Stage and Their Use to Predict Academic Achievement of EFL Iraqi Learners

الملخص

This study explores the thinking styles of English foreign language (EFL) preparatory stage learners in Iraq that may affect their academic achievement. The study is underpinned with Sternberg's Theory of Mental Self-Governance to use the researcher-developed Thinking Styles Questionnaire (TSQ) in a 20 item test comprising four styles – Legislative, Executive, Judicial and Global. The sample of the study consisted of 78 fifth grade scientific preparatory school students in Al-Rusafa\3 / Baghdad/Centre for the academic year (2024 – 2025). Descriptive statistical data showed that among the students Legislative and Global styles were most common and this tendency to creative, independent and the holistic style of learning. Correlations revealed significant positive associations between Legislative, Judicial and Global styles with mid-term English scores of students; however the Executive style failed to correlate significantly with achievement. In addition, regression results found that the three significant styles taken together accounted for 38% of students’ variation English performance. The results demonstrate the power of students' cognitive habits in predicting their language success and emphasize the importance of taking thinking-style diversity into account when planning instruction. The study suggests that opportunities to stimulate imagination and evaluation, as well as holistic reflection, be developed in English curriculums to facilitate this level of support for students. These findings may be applied even for other educational levels and disciplines in future work.