The Influence Of Affective Factors On Oral English Performance

With the development of foreign language education, researches on learning strategies have been conducted from various angles, hence its comprehensive development in depth. In the research of this field, much attention is paid to the study of the learner's individual difference and particularly the learner's affective factors in second language acquisition. As Krashen (1985) suggests in his Affective Filter Hypotheses, learners would be influenced by such affective factors as interest, attitude, anxiety, motivation and self-esteem etc. in language learning process. Researches at home and abroad show that the learners' affective factors exert a certain degree of influence on their English learning achievement, and even in some cases, determine their success or failure.However, in researches on learning strategies, people still attach greater importance to cognitive factors than to affective factors. On the other hand, among the researches which have been done on learners' affects, most of them are concerned about the relationship between the affective factors and listening, reading, and writing competence, leaving speaking untouched. Based on the theory of humanistic teaching notion and Krashen's Affective Filter Hypothesis, the writer attempts to explore the relationship between the students' affective factors and oral performance. The thesis intends to find some useful affective strategies that can solve the students' problems on learning speaking and provides practical implications in oral English teaching.The study is mainly conducted in Huanggang Normal University.141 students were involved in the investigation, females 126 and males 15, aging from 18 to 21. All the students are English majors. In order to find out the relationship between the students' affects and their oral English performance, quantitative research method is applied in the investigation. The SPSS 13.0 analysis of the collected data shows that students' motivation and affective strategies have a close relationship with the students'oral English achievement.According to the results of the study, we can conclude that affective factors can definitely influence oral English learning, and the application of affective strategies is effective for language learners in their oral English performance. Therefore the primary task for language teachers is to help students consciously apply affective strategies to make oral English learning more effective. Thus, this investigation does have some practical significance in developing oral English pedagogy and could serve as reference for further studies conducted in the future.