On Affective Barriers Of Junior Middle School EFL Students With Learning Difficulties

English teaching in the middle school has always been considered as one of the basic and crucial parts in the humanistic education. As a foreign language to the Chinese middle school students, English study becomes a very hard task for them. There are many reasons for causing such a phenomenon as the great differences between the mother tongue and English, its special grammar rules, and other complicated problems, under the present education context such as a heavy burden of exams, tough classroom atmosphere, which leads to the result that a certain number of the EFL students fall behind the others. Those students become tired of English study even give up their English learning. Nowadays, this group of EFL students with learning difficulties is becoming a serious problem for the educators, their English teachers, and their parents. Therefore, it is necessary and important for the educators and teachers to explore the affective barriers that cause those EFL students' learning difficulty since many scholars tended to carry out their research on the intelligent and cognitive factors of those EFL students, yet the non-intelligent factors have been neglected.This study, based on Krashen's theory of affective hypothesis, tries to focus on the two major affective factors as motivation and anxiety which closely related to the middle school students' language input and discusses the causes of their learning difficulty in English studies. It intends to propose some effective methods to help those EFL students to overcome their negative affective barriers. The major research questions are as follows:1. Are affective barriers one of the main reasons that caused those EFL students' learning difficulty?2. What are the affective barriers for these EFL students with learning difficulties and what are the reasons that cause them such difficulties?3. How to help those EFL students with learning difficulty to conquer their negative affective factors?130 junior middle school students from Yu Lin Experimental School participated the research. Through classroom observation, questionnaire and interviews, the author collected the demanding data and analyzed it by SPSS software.The analysis and discussions result in such a conclusion that there is a relationship between these EFL learners' affective factors and their English proficiency. The following were the major findings of this study:First, the main reasons for these middle school EFL students with learning difficulty are the lack of motivation and self-confidence in English study, and incorrect attitude towards English learning, and some other affective factors.Second, language anxiety and lack of motivation are the two major causes that lead to the middle school EFL students' learning difficulty.Third, one of the effective methods to help these EFL students with learning difficulty is to debilitate their negative affective filter and facilitate their language input and thus improve these EFL students' English proficiency.This study approved that both language anxiety and motivation do play an important role in the middle school students' English learning. Besides, the author proposed some suggestions: English teachers should pay more attention to the affective situation of the EFL students with learning difficulty, be empathetic, caring and encouraging. As to the teaching method, English teachers must notice the differences of students' learning ability and learning habits. The key responsibility for English teachers is to cultivate these students with the habit of active learning and the interest in learning English and set up self-confidence in their English learning. In one word, the lofty mission for the English teachers is to create a learning atmosphere of shared partnership, a common purpose, and a joint management of learning, so that these EFL students with learning difficulty will make their own meaning and become English lovers.