A Social Constructivist Model For The Construction Of Affect In FLL

Cognition and affect are two important sides existing in foreign language learning. However, influenced by the traditional rationalism in western philosophy, more attentions have been paid to the cultivation and development of learners'cognitive skills than their affective development in foreign language researches, which leads to"emotional illiteracy". Since 1960s, with the development of humanistic psychology, affective factors in education are attaching more and more attentions. Many studies have shown that affective factors such as motivation, anxiety, self-esteem, empathy, etc., could directly determine the success or failure in foreign language learning and teaching, and would have a profound impact on the development of the whole-person.The social constructivist model is put forward by M. Williams and R. Burden, eliciting the ideas from humanism, constructivism and social interactionism. In this model, knowledge is believed to be constructed by the individual himself instead of transmitting by others and such construction is the result of social interactions, taking place in the interactions with teachers, learners, tasks and contexts. Within these interactions, learners can also construct their affect that is personal to themselves, which will filter the input data and cause different learning outcomes. Therefore, to help learnersconstruct positive affect is part of the teaching goals in FLT. The social constructivist model of the teaching-learning process can provide us with a new perspective on the study of affect in FLL and this thesis aims to explore how to construct positive affect in FLL on the basis of this model.The study mainly utilizes quantitative and qualitative analyses to discuss under the social constructivist model how the interactions among teachers, learners, tasks and contexts influence learners'affective states and the relationship between learners'affective factors and their learning achievements. Instruments used in this thesis are questionnaire, interview and class observation so as to make the study creditable and valid. The results of the study show that learners construct their affect during the interactions with others and positive affect can make foreign language learning more successful.There are four chapters in this thesis.Chapter 1 is a brief introduction of affect from aspects of interpretations, classifications and roles of affect so as to further expound the importance of affective factors in FLL.Chapter 2 is the theoretical basis of the whole paper. Through systematic explanations of the social constructivist model, important implications are drawn from this model for the construction of affect in FLL.In Chapter 3, a survey is made to study the relationship between learners'affective factors and their language achievements, and the influences of teachers'affect, tasks and emotional environment on learners'affective states. Questionnaire, class observation and interview are used in this study and the major findings are analyzed and discussed in detail.Chapter 4 is the most important part in this thesis in which several strategies of how to construct affect are put forward in the process of foreign language learning.This study is expected to be beneficial for promoting the quality and efficiency of foreign language teaching and learning in the future.