A Research On The Impact Of Students' Affective Factors On FLL In Senior Middle School

With the development of humanistic psychology in the sixties of the 20th century, the problem of affect in language teaching began to arouse great attention. Humanistic psychologists advocate that education should aim at facilitating human beings'all-around development, which has to combine cognition and affect.In China, since 2003 the New English Curriculum Standards (trial edition) (NECS) has been put into practice, which for the first time considers affect as an integral part of learning, as well as one of the teaching goals. As is shown in the NECS, the emotional development is as important as the cognitive development. Nevertheless, in the present English classroom, especially in Chinese senior school, students'affective factors in the learning process have not called enough attention or even been totally neglected. Inadequate job in the affective domain has inevitably led to the present situation of inefficient and ineffective foreign language learning. Many students have little motivation in English study and some negative emotions reduce their leaning effect in a great way.This thesis studies learners'five major affective factors: motivation, anxiety, self-esteem, self-confidence and inhibition. Motivation is a very important factor in language learning. It has been widely accepted by teachers and researchers as one of the key factors influencing the rate and success of second/foreign language learning. Much of the work in this area suggested that it is quite necessary to initiate and protect the learners'learning motivation. Anxiety is an important affective factor that pervasively obstructs the leaning process. The relationship between anxiety and education in the foreign language setting has been well established throughout the research world for decades. And a lot of students who have high anxiety in study choose Inhibition behavior in English classroom activities. Self-esteem and empathy are both factors that influence the attitude of foreign language learners and the effect of foreign language learning. Because of low self-esteem and high anxiety, many learners choose inhibition behavior in English study. The emotions affecting language learning are intertwined and interrelated. They emerge at any stages in the learning and teaching process. Thus, affective factors and their influences are rather complicated.The thesis tries to find out the current situation of senior students'affective factors and the correlations between the affective variables and the students'language proficiency seeking ways to help students and teachers to improve the learning efficiency and the teaching quality. From September, 2010 to January, 2011, an investigation was made among 100 students of Grade One of NO.4 Senior Middle School in Datong, Shanxi Province, which is a key secondary school of the area. Through a questionnaire and some interviews, the author collected much information on the affective factors of the senior students. Investigations show that senior students'affective state in English learning is not encouraging, and affective problems exist extensively among learners, especially the average & poor students. The problems cover various anxiety, lack in motivation, inhibition, etc.Apparently, to explore ways to eliminate students'affective problems and help them construct positive affects, so as to facilitate effective learning, has become a task allowing of no delay. In view of this situation, this thesis aims at appealing for people's attention toward affective factors in senior English learning, seeking ways to remove students'affective barriers and construct positive affects in order to help students improve the learning efficiency, and promote all-around development of the students.