On College Students' Affective Factors In English Learning

From the 1960s, people's attention is gradually invited to the affect of human being in language teaching and learning, and some linguists and educators have been studying the effect of affective factors on language teaching and learning since then. The Affective Filter Hypothesis, one hypothesis of the Monitor Model Theories, put forward by American linguist Krashen has brought forth great response in the second language acquisition field. Researchers at home and abroad such as Rod Ellis, Wen Qiufang and Xiao Defa have already carried out researches on the effect of the affective factors on foreign language learning. We can gain a great deal of enlightenment from the previous studies, which can improve language teaching and learning to a certain degree.Based on psychology and affective theories and studies, the thesis aims to investigate students' affect issues in English learning in agricultural university. The present research intends to inquire into the current affect situation of students, analyze the effect of affective factors on learning result, explore the relationship between affective factors and learning achievement, and advance the feasible suggestions constructing positive affects and avoiding negative ones to further improve learners' competency and outcomes.360 students from three different agricultural universities are surveyed by the questionnaire, and they are divided into two groups, qualified group and unqualified group, according to their achievements of CET 4 of June 2008 and their English college entrance examination. Four major affective factors: self-esteem, motivation, anxiety and attitude, which are closely related to language teaching and learning, are studied in the research. The author have collected the data, analyzed them so as to explore the affect distinction between the two groups by independent samples group t test and the effect of affective factors on English learning as well as the correlations between affective factors and their achievements in English learning. The aim of the study is to help teachers and students find ways to improve teaching quality and learning efficiency respectively.After detailed analysis and theoretical exploration, some important results and conclusions are as follow:Firstly, on self-esteem, the difference between two groups is statistically significant. The score of self-esteem in qualified group is higher than unqualified group obviously. Moreover, the better the students'English results, the higher their self-esteem. So, under the present learning circumstances, there is obvious positive correlation between self-esteem and learner's achievement:the higher the learner scores, the better self-esteem he has and vice versa. Secondly, there isn't statistically significant difference between two groups, because in our special educational system that students must pass some compulsory examinations such as CET 4 or CET 6 in college and under the increasing pressure in the social competition, students have to work hard to improve their competitiveness. Students with instrumental motivation get high scores than those with integrative motivation, which can be explained by their majors that have little to do with language and culture and the purpose of learning English is to pass CET 4 or CET 6 in university. Thirdly, as to anxiety, the difference between two groups is statistically significant. The anxiety of qualified group is obviously lower than unqualified group, that is to say the lower anxiety is of benefit to English teaching and learning. At the same time the unqualified group has more obvious anxiety obstacles than the qualified group. And the anxiety is related to language achievement in inversed "U" pattern in the unqualified group. Medium level anxiety is helpful to enhance learning effect, however, excessively high or low anxiety restrains learning effect. Fourthly, active attitude can improve the learning result, and create a chain reaction of positive language development, while passive attitude is negative to language development.