Study On Affective Factors Influencing Votech College Learners' English Learning

In the past, most English educators paid the most attention tocognitive factors of learners while neglecting the affective ones. Until the1960s, people began to pay attention to the function of affect in languageteaching and learning. In the late 1970s, linguists were searching for waysto enrich language teaching and learning by incorporating learners'affects. There are many affective factors influencing learner's learningresults and the situation is very complex. Generally speaking, theaffective factors can be classified into two categories. One is calledindividual factors including learner's motivation, attitude, anxiety andself-esteem. The other refers to the interactive ones. They are thepsychological influence such as empathy, classroom transactions,cross-cultural processes, etc., which are created in the course ofinteraction among the learners or between the learners and the teachers. Ifwe view affect from the aspects of feeling and the degree of the affectiveexperience, affective factors can also be classified into three types:positive, negative and neutral. Positive affective factors promote learning,while negative ones block the way of effective learning. This thesisstudies learners' seven major affective factors according to the actualsituation of votech college learners' English learning. They are motivation,attitude, anxiety, self-esteem, empathy, classroom transactions andcross-cultural processes.Many researches show that learners' affective factors play a greatpart in English learning. Much attention to the influence and functions ofthe affective aspects in teaching and learning processes can lead to moreeffective learning. Meanwhile, to pay more attention to learners' affectivefactors in education is also a way to educate the whole students, bringingtogether mind and heart in the classroom. So how to motivate votechcollege learners' positive affective factors in English learning, promotedeep development of teaching reform and dig for the theoretical andpractical value of the affective research have become a field worthstudying. The thesis based on the related research both at home and abroad,guided by affective theory, psychology and educational psychologytheories, and assisted with questionnaire that investigated 219 learners'affective status in 6 votech colleges in Hunan Province, discovers thataffective problems are universal phenomena, and that the learners withhigh English level have little affective problems while those with lowEnglish level have serious affective problems. At the same time, itpresents the possible countermeasures against votech college learners'affective problems according to the actual affective status of votechcollege learners' English learning.This thesis falls into five parts. Chapter1 overviews the theoriesrelated to affective factors and educational practice. Chapter2 discussesthe importance of affective English teaching. Chapter3 illustrates votechcollege learners' affective status quo in English learning and the reasonswhy their English is poor by the survey of questionnaire, interviews andobservations, compares different affective characteristics between thelearners with high English level and those with low English level. Itprovides a reliable basis for study on how to motivate votech collegelearners' positive affects in English learning. Chapter4 offers somecountermeasures to help votech learners overcome negativeaffects in English learning and develop positive ones. Chapter5verifies the practical effects and the applied value of votech collegelearners' affective cultivation in English teaching practice by experiment.In short, the research and the related teaching practice attempt toprove that paying close attention to the votech college learners' affectivefactors in English learning, and adopting effective countermeasures ofaffective cultivation are of great importance in overcoming votech collegelearners' affective problems, improving their academic grades, andtransforming them into the learners of healthy and all-round development.