Affective Factors Influencing Autonomous English Learning Of College Students

In this knowledge explosion era,it is necessary to be equipped with the ability of autonomous learning in order to meet the needs of social development.However,many factors make the improvement of college students' autonomous English learning(AEL)ability difficult.As a humanistic psychologist,Rodgers believes that learners should be responsible for their own learning,yet the learning outcomes may be influenced by students' learning attitudes,motivations,anxiety and other affective factors.In fact,as early as the last century,Krashen,a famous linguist in the United States,pointed out that a large number of inputs did not mean students can learn the language well,and the affective factors played a significant role in the process of second language acquisition(SLA).It is true that there are plenty of researches on affective factors influencing foreign language learning at home and abroad,but the research focusing on the combination of affective factors with autonomous English learning of college students is rare.This thesis attempts to make an in-depth study on the four major affective factors,namely learning attitude,learning motivation,anxiety and personality with questionnaires and interviews as research instruments,aiming at finding answers to the following questions:(1)How and to what extent do affective factors influence autonomous English learning of college students?(2)Which affective factors have a positive influence on autonomous English learning and which affective factors have a negative influence on autonomous English learning?(3)Are there any significant relations between learners' autonomous English learning ability and their English achievements? All the survey data for the research are collected from 212 sophomores at Three Gorges University by questionnaires.Meanwhile,18 students participating in the survey are randomly selected to have an individual interview.From the analysis of the survey data,the author finally draws the following conclusions:(1)the four major affective factors do have a great impact on college students' AEL;(2)positive learning attitude and strong learning motivation are beneficial to AEL,while too much anxiety and too introvert personality have a negative influence on AEL;(3)there are close relations between learners' autonomous English learning ability and their English achievements.The conclusions drawn above show that the study of affective factors influencing autonomous English learning is meaningful,helping English teachers stimulate students' motivation,and create an enjoyable learning atmosphere,thus boosting their autonomous English learningability.