The Effect Of Teacher's Feedback On Students' Affective Factors In Writing

The study reported in this thesis is from concern of the author as a teacher about students' affective problems in English writing. The research takes an interest in how teacher's feedback on students' composition exerts on students' affect The study is based on several important theories of education, such as second language acquisition and affective factors, Humanistic Education Theory, Krashen's Filter Hypothesis and theory of teacher's feedback. Based on the theoretical and literature review, a research is designed to study whether teacher's feedback on students' writing can influence their affect and to probe the relationship between teacher's feedback and their writing performance. The experiment study lasted three semesters and generally was divided into three steps: data collection, data selection and data analysis. The participants involve a teacher and three classes, totaling 118 students. Instruments for date collection and analysis include questionnaires, Microsoft Excel, T-test for Equality Means in Microsoft Excel, the Variance statistic method in Microsoft Excel, and computer assistant design system. The experiment study is focused on anxiety, motivation and self-esteem aspects. It consists of four separate experiments. In the experiments, there are controlled group and experimental group. Their reactions to teacher's comments can clearly illustrate the functions or the effects of teacher's feedback on students' writing performance.The conclusion of the study is the following: 1. Most students' motivation is instrumental. The top students have clear goal and their intrinsic motivation is the strongest 2. Anxiety is the biggest problem of students' English writing. This element is hard to change in short period of time because most students' anxiety belongs to situational anxiety. When they arein specific or very important situation, their anxiety will be increased and become a barrier to their performance. 3. Self-esteem is easily influenced for students who get the lowest marks. Teacher's positive comments will help them to build self-esteem. However teacher's comments affect the top students little. 4. It is found that positive teacher's feedback can enhance students' writing performance. Generally speaking, students mostly like the positive, clear and encouraging teacher's comments.The thesis contains five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces overall view of affect and the significance of the thesis. Chapter 2 concerns the study abroad and in China It is mainly a review of relative study results. Chapter 3 is theoretical background, paving the ground for the current study. Chapter 4 consists of four experiments. The last chapter is the conclusion part. It concerns with the major findings, limitations of the present study and suggestions for the further research.