The Role Of Classroom Environment In English Teaching And Learning: From The Perspective Of Group Dynamics

Affective factors in education gained importance with the development of humanistic psychology in the 1960s. In the foreign language learning and teaching research field, scholars have discovered that affect plays a significant role. Different methods have been used to prove the relationship between affectivity in a certain group (i. e. classroom). In the special society established within the classroom, the affective dimension of the relationships among the learners, the teacher and the other learners can greatly influence the direction and outcome of the experience.The systematic study of the dynamics of groups was initiated in the United States by the social psychologist Kurt Lewin and his associates in the 1940s, and group issues have been studied since then within many different branches of the social sciences. Although group theory has an important contribution to make to understanding what goes on in classroom, educational researchers have been slow in realizing the relevance of group dynamics to teaching. This is partly due to the different research traditions and unsteady class groups. Besides, most of the studies are conducted in western countries. In order to investigate the Chinese situation, the author has carried out a study to get the better understanding of group dynamics.The formation of group dynamics is complicated, which is affected by many factors such as member's personal experience, the learning climate in the whole school or classroom, and the teacher's guide. The author focuses on the learning environment. In order to get a handle on the effect of the group dynamics in classrooms, the author conducts a specialized survey among 100 nursing-majored students from Anhui Medical Vocational College.In good condition of group dynamics, the active climate in the classroom enables the teacher to conduct teaching smoothly. The teacher and learners cooperate well. In poor condition of group dynamics, the teacher can not expect students to perform well and the whole teaching process may turn out to be a failure. Teachers who serve as the leader or mediator in the group dynamics can direct the development of positive group dynamics to an easy, joyful language learning environment in which the higher learning efficiency can be achieved.The psychologists point out that the teachers spend about 90% of time in the classrooms. Therefore, the study on classroom environment can stimulate further development of English teaching and learning. It can serve as a guide to help Chinese students improve their English level. Because of research conditions, all the subjects come from the same major and in the same grade, It constitutes the limitation of this thesis.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One offers a brief introduction to group dynamics and classroom environment. Chapter Two is literature review. It refers to the definition of group dynamics some former research on classroom environment. Chapter Three focuses on the research methodology. It introduces the research subjects, instruments and procedures. In Chapter Four, the author makes a specific analysis of the collected data from classroom observation, questionnaire and interview. And it demonstrates that positive group dynamics can create ideal learning environment. The teacher plays a central role in forming and leading group dynamics. Chapter Five is the conclusion of the whole thesis. It lists the major findings, implications as well as limitation of this study.