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An Investigation of Learners’ Affective Factors in Chinese Secondary School English Learning

Author: TangJie
Tutor: XiaoLongFu
School: Shandong Normal University
Course: Subject Teaching
Keywords: affect, motivation anxiety personality, English language learning
CLC: G633.41
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2006
Downloads: 773
Quote: 8
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Abstract

In recent years, an increasing number of foreign language teachers andresearchers have focused their attention on learners’ individual differences and carriedout substantial studies on affective factors from various perspectives. The affectivecomponents contribute much to the language learning. Attention to affective aspectscan lead to more effective language learning. In the presence of overly negativeemotions such as anxiety, fear, stress, anger and depression, learners’ optimal learningpotential may be compromised. To pay attention to learners’ affective factors is also away to promote the quality-orientated education, which advocates all-arounddevelopment of the students.This thesis studies learners’ three major affective factors: motivation, anxiety andpersonality. Motivation is a very important factor in language learning. It has beenwidely accepted by teachers and researchers as one of the key factors influencing therate and success of second/foreign language learning. Much of the work in this areasuggested that it is important to initiate the learners’ learning motivation. Anxiety isan important affective factor that pervasively obstructs the leaning process. Therelationship between anxiety and education in the second language setting has beenwell established throughout the research world for decades. The second/foreignlanguage learning process is strongly influenced by individual personality traitsresiding within the learners. Extroversion and introversion are two important traits inpersonality. However, what’s the current situation of learners’ affective factors in theChinese secondary school English teaching and learning settings? What’s thecorrelation between learners’ affective factors and their learning achievements in thetest? It’s quite necessary to explore the above issues because research concerning thisaspect is seldom seen.The aim of the study is to help teachers and students find ways to improve thelearning efficiency, the teaching quality and promote all-around development of thestudents. To this end, the author investigates students of three schools in Shandongprovince, collects data and analyses them statistically by using SPSS12.0 for windowsso as to explore the current situation of senior middle school students’ affect inEnglish classes as well as the correlations between affective factors and theirachievements in the test.The investigation shows that most of the subjects have obvious learningmotivation. Their extrinsic motivations are mainly for passing NMET, their furtherstudy and future work, not for winning the respect and admiration from the teachersand students and not for going abroad or being experts in English in the future. As tointrinsic motivation, most of the subjects are fond of learning English and interestedin cultures and customs in English-speaking countries. Besides, there exists a notablypositive correlation between intrinsic motivation and the subjects’ NMET scores and apositive correlation between extrinsic motivation and the subjects’ NMET scores.The investigation results show that quite a number of subjects’ anxiety level ishigh in the current English class and that the subjects’ anxieties are mainlycommunication anxiety and classroom anxiety, not the examination anxiety and fearof negative social evaluation. The study also shows that there is a notably negativecorrelation between their anxiety levels and the subjects’ NMET scores.As to the personality, the investigation results show that there are moreintroverted learners than extroverted ones in current English learning settings. Theresults also indicate that there is no obvious correlation between different personalitytypes and the subjects’ NMET scores.True that motivation, anxiety and personality are only three aspects of affectivefactors, and affective factors itself can not solve all the problems in foreign languagelearning, which is achieved mainly through cognitive process. However, it is safe toarrive at the conclusion that, by such means as improving teaching methods, foreignlanguage teaching and learning can be bettered if the teacher can enhance themotivation, interest and the sense of achievement among students, minimize thedebilitating anxiety and adopt appropriate teaching strategies for introverts andextroverts accordingly. To this end, in Chinese secondary school EFLT, we need to beconcerned with both the students’ affective and cognitive needs. In addition, weshould unite cognition and affect in the mind and use them appropriately so as toimprove the teaching quality and promote all-around development of the students.

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CLC: > Culture, science,education, sports > Education > Secondary education > Subjects teaching methods, teaching aids > Foreign language > English
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