A Study On Affect Cultivation In English Learning And Teaching In Secondary Vocational Schools

The important goal of the current education is to facilitate the learners'whole development. In recent years, researchers and teachers have emphasized the importance of affect factors in learners'whole development and the relation between affect and cognition. In school education, however, still the development of intelligence and knowledge is given full attention and the cultivation of affect is neglected to some degree for various reasons. Such is also the situation of English learning and teaching in secondary vocational schools. Moreover, English learning and teaching in secondary vocational schools has difficulties different from those in high schools. Researchers in affect education domain mostly put high school students and college students into their study; but they rarely put students and teachers from secondary vocational schools into their study. This study aims at experimental teaching on cultivating students'affect in English learning and teaching in secondary vocational schools to promote all-round development.Based on the theories of educational psychology and methodology of foreign language teaching, the present study aims to show that attention to affect in English classroom teaching and employing proper instructional strategies are conducive to students'positive and healthy affect growth and a more holistic development. The primary research methods in this study are both qualitative and quantitative. In the qualitative research, the author analyzed and classified the researches on affect. The author elaborated the vital role that affect plays in English language teaching, and then put forward English classroom design by using some affective instructional strategies. In the quantitative research, two intact classes were chosen to carry out the experiment of a semester. A questionnaire was employed and the experimental data were provided through the pretest and posttest. The data were collected and analyzed by the statistical software of SPSS and Microsoft Excel. The results of the experiment indicate that attention to affect and employing proper instructional strategies work in helping the students develop positive and healthy affect.This thesis first presents a brief review of affect study home and abroad, from which we can see both western and Chinese educators and teachers advocate affective teaching in foreign language education. Researches on the schools'situations in China show that it is of great significance to explore cultivating students'affect in English learning and teaching in secondary vocational schools. Then the thesis introduces three fields of educational theories: humanistic psychology theory, constructivism and second language acquisition theory as the theoretical bases of this thesis, which suggest treating students as individuals, getting students involved in activities and providing students a supportive environment. And then it analyzes affect factors and how to enhance or reduce their effects in the classroom teaching designs. Lastly it provides the tests on the students'affect situations, the analyses on the tests and the conclusion.In the view of the author, the purpose of classroom teaching is not only to transmit content information but also cultivate students'positive and healthy affect and promote their whole-person development. The breakthrough to English learning and teaching in secondary vocational schools should be affect cultivation. English teachers ought to be concerned with both the students'affective and cognitive needs. They should increase their interests, reduce their debilitating anxiety and enhance their self-esteem. This study shows that attention to affect and employing proper instructional strategies are effective in reducing the negative affect factors and enhancing the positive affect factors.