A Study On Affective Factors From The Perspective Of English Curriculum Standards

The latter half of the 20th century has witnessed a shift in interest in foreign language teaching research from teachers'teaching to students'learning, since researchers have realized that the teaching materials and methods are only external causes, which become operative only through internal causes (the learner himself) in the acquisition of knowledge and communicative competence in a foreign language. Researchers and teachers in growing numbers are attempting a learner-centered approach with great effect, as well as exploring into cognitive characteristics of individual learners, which have traditionally been thought of as the key factor in differential success in learning a foreign language. But it has also been realized that affective factors are as important as, if not more important than, cognitive factors. According to educational psychology, affective variables count greatly for foreign language learning efficiency and success. Nevertheless, we've concentrated on understanding the rational, cognitive functions of our mind thus far, while misusing or denying whatever falls within the realm of the emotions or the non-rational. One of the consequences of this situation is our current"emotional illiteracy". Accordingly, it should be noted that the affective side of learning is not in opposition to the cognitive side and that it's time cognition and emotion were reunited in the mind.English Curriculum Standards designs goals and objectives from three aspects: cognitive domain, affective domain and psychomotor domain; besides, it stresses that affective factors play a very important role in students'study and further development as well. Based on the achievements made by scholars home and abroad, this study intends to explore the effect of affective factors on foreign language learning. In an attempt to provide a framework for such a broad subject, we'll look at affect in foreign language learning from mainly 2 perspectives: motivation and anxiety. Motivation is a very important factor in language learning, without which even"gifted"individuals can't accomplish long-term goals, whatever the curricula and whoever the teacher. It has been widely accepted by teachers and researchers as one of the key factors influencing the rate and success of foreign language learning. Much of the work in this area suggests that it is important to present tasks which tap into the learners'intrinsic motivation. The relationship between anxiety and education has been well established throughout the research world for decades. Anxiety is quite possibly the affective factor that most pervasively obstructs the learning process.To better understand high school students'affective state in English communicative classes so as to improve English teaching in senior schools, the author has done questionnaires to senior high English learners. The study is a small-scale survey about their affective state of English study intending to find out the tentative relations between their affective state and language proficiency. The study shows that affective factors play an important part in students'attitude toward English class. It also shows that teachers play an important role in the students'emotional environment of English learning. However, most of the EFL teachers haven't paid enough attention to their students'affective effect. There are two reasons 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. Nevertheless, generally the students really want to improve their English learning.The investigation shows that the middle school students'intrinsic motivations are not so strong as extrinsic motivations. The research results also show that difference in the performance of the learners with strong or weak intrinsic motivations is significant. Thus, obviously, intrinsic motivations play a very important part in EFL learning. For most students, the strongest motivation of English learning is to pass the national entrance exam. So it is essential 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 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 or 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. . In the hope of shedding some light on senior high school English learning and teaching, through analysis and research, the study has put forward some suggestions concerning English teaching in senior schools. Namely, practical ways are necessary to foster students'motivation; elastic and effective measures are required to reduce students'language anxiety; and it is crucial to create a cooperative as well as harmonious relationship between teachers and students. Of course there still exist some limitations in this study; owing to the limited knowledge and experience of the author, this thesis is just a superficial descriptive research and the survey may be a little bit too simplistic and is at best tentative The author's view must be partial and simple. Accordingly, this thesis is in need of further discussion and improvement, and more comprehensive and profound researches are required in this field.