Learners' Affective Factors In College English Communicative Classrooms

Communicative language teaching approach is one of the language teaching approaches to realise constructivist theory in English as a foreign/second language classroom. However, it can be problematical in the learning context of Chinese universities. Among other things, learners' affective factors play a great part.The affective component contributes much to language learning. Attention to affective aspects can lead to more effective language learning. In the presence of overly negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, stress, anger or depression, learners' optimal learning potential may be compromised. To pay attention to learners' emotional education is also a way to educate the whole student, bringing together mind and heart in the classroom.This thesis studies learners' three major affective factors: motivation, anxiety and personality. Motivation is a very important factor in language learning. It has been widely accepted by teachers and researchers as one of the key factors influencing the rate and success of second/foreign language learning. Much of the work in this area suggests that it is important to present tasks which tap into the learners' intrinsic motivationThe relationship between anxiety and education has been well established throughout the research world for decades. Anxiety is quite possible the affective factor that most pervasively obstructs the learning process.The second/foreign language learning process is strongly influenced by individual personality traits residing within the learner. Extroversion and introversion are thought as two important traits in personality.To better understand college students' affective state in English communicative classes and try to approach some problems, the author questionnaires college English students in University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, collects data and analyses them statistically. The study shows that affective factors play an important part in why students like English class. There are two reasons for why students do not actively take part in classroom discussion and conversation. One is that sometimes the topic for discussion is too boring and uninteresting; the other is that students are afraid of making mistakes.The investigation in the thesis shows the college students' intrinsic motivations are not so strong as extrinsic motivations. The results also show that difference in the performance of the learners with strong or weak intrinsic motivations is significant. Intrinsic motivations play a very important part in EFL learning.The strongest motivation for the college students to learn English is to pass the CET4 and CET6, or pass the national entrance exam for postgraduate students. It isnecessary for teachers to adapt their classes to some degree to the students' motivation of this kind.In communicative classroom, one of the problems is that the students' anxiety levels are high. The research conducted in this thesis shows that there is a high negative correlation between the students' performance in exams and their anxiety levels in the communicative classroom. The higher the anxiety level of a student is, the worse he/she performs in the exams. Thus one of the teachers' tasks in communicative classes is to build up a low-stress and safe environment for students' language learning.It seems to the communicative classroom teachers that extroverts are more active in participation in the discussion and conversation. But the results indicate that the extroverted students are not necessarily more effective in EFL learning than the introverted students. Extroverts and introverts just have different ways of learning.The summarization of the study in the thesis: First, it has found out statistically some existing problems in college English communicative language teaching classroom: learner's affective factors play an important part in English communicative classroom; as one of the affective environmental factors, the teacher's influence on learners' affection is also important, but te...