A Study Of Affective Factors In Foreign Language Learning Of Non-English Majors

Research in second language learning has been focused on teaching rather than learning before 1970s. However, teachers, teaching skills and teaching materials are only external causes which have to be combined with internal causes, learners' aptitude, learners' affective state and so on. Learners should be the focus of consideration.There have been two major traditions in second language research: the study of common process learning and the study of individual differences. Cognitive factors have been considered the key factors affecting second language learning success. But it has been realized that affective factors are as important as, if not more important than, cognitive factors. Previous researches also prove that affective factors play an important role in second language learning and teaching.This paper focuses on the study of affective factors of individual learners and their effect on second language learning achievement. Through the statistical analysis of subjects' affective factors and their College English Test Band Four (CET4), conclusion is drawn that affect does play an important role in second language learning. Among the three major factors studied, personality and motivation prove to be correlated with CET4 achievement, while anxiety doesn't show any correlation with CET4 achievement. The reason may be that anxiety affects speaking most according to some previous research results, while there is no speaking in CET4.