A Study Of Correlation Between College Students’ Affective Factors And Their Language Achievement In English

Second language acquisition as an independent discipline formed in the 1960s and 1970s, and meanwhile, humanism psychology also starts the process of its development. Those concepts which combine the cognitive views with the emotional views proposed by humanists, which have broaden a new perspective for the exploration and research of the second language acquisition; therefore, the status of emotional factors in language learning has been paid high attention by linguists and language learners. Since the American linguist Krashen put forward the Affective Filter Hypothesis in the seventies of the 20th century, there are many scholars both at home and abroad such as Michael Long, Rod Ellis, Jane Arnold, Wen Qiufang, Dai Manchun, Qin Xiaoqing, all have stepped into the influence of affective factors in language learning. Based on the predecessors’ theoretical foundations and research achievements, this article will continue to make a further empirical analysis in order to study the relationship between language learners’ emotional factors and their language learning performance.This study aims to explore the correlative relationship between college students’ English learning emotional state and its performance. First of all, designing a questionnaire based on the main four affective variables which include anxiety, motivation(deep motivation and surface motivation), self-esteem and personality (extroversion and introversion) which cites Horwitz’s (1986) Foreign Language Anxiety Scale, Wen’s (2002 and 1996) Motivation Scale and Personality Scale, Gao Yihong’s (2003) Motivation Scale, Rosenberg’s (1965) Self-esteem Scale. Abstracting a random sample of 307 college students from six colleges of Northeast Forestry University including Economics and Management College, College of Engineering and Technology, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering College, College of Humanities and Law, and Foreign Languages College to finish the experimental survey so that to understand the basic situation of college students’ emotional state, then collecting samples from the college entrance examination scores and the data of the CET-4 results, and made a correlational analysis between the four affective factors and English learning achievement. Finally, using the data to make a further regression analysis, and then draw some corresponding constructive suggestions for English learners and teachers on the basis of this empirical research.Statistics analysis shows that the students’ motivation, self-esteem are positively correlated with language achievement; anxiety has a negative influence on language achievement and personality (extroversion and introversion) has little impact on English learning achievements; there are mutual influences among affective variables, anxiety is negatively correlated with motivation, anxiety is negatively related with personality, and self-esteem has the positive effect on motivation; the significant differences between the high score group and the low score group are the variable anxiety. At last, motivation has the predictive power for English learning performance.At last, according to the study of correlation between college students’ affective factors and their language achievement in English, the author hopes to achieve the implication and suggestion for language learners and teachers in order to make a proficient language teaching and to have the efficient language learning.