Affectivity And English Learning

Since the 1960s, people have gradually realized the importance of affectivity in language teaching, owing to the development of humanistic psychology and the exploration of the second language acquisition. At this point, affective factor has become one of the research concerns. The researches are concentrated with the following four aspects: first, from theoretical perspective, the study is centered on theories of affectivity; second, from the relationship between affectivity and language learning, the study of the effects of affectivity on language learning is emphasized; third, from psychological perspective, the interaction of psychology and affective teaching is concerned; fourth, from affective strategy perspective, how to apply affective strategies to language learning is discussed.Based on the theories of psychology and second language acquisition, this thesis aims to investigate the relationship between affectivity and language learning in terms of anxiety, attitude and motivation. The non-English majors at Guangxi Normal University were selected as subjects, and questionnaires and interview were used to collect data. Results bring out the findings as follows:1) Anxiety has significant and negative effects on performance. Learners at high anxiety level are less likely to succeed in learning English. Three kinds of anxiety negatively related to performance, and the fear of negative evaluation has a moderate relation with language learning.2) Attitude has significant and positive effects on performance. Learners with high attitude level perform better. Three kinds of attitude positively related to learning, and the strength of conative attitude has a moderate relation with language performance.3) There is no significant relation between motivation and performance. Integrative motivation is more likely to affect performance than instrumental motivation.This research suggests that since affectivity has a close relation with performance, learners'understanding of cognitive and affective aspects of language learning can lead to more effective learning, and harmonized classroom can improve teaching.