Emotional Factors In The College English Listening Class

With the advent of the development of humanistic psychology and the exploration of the second language acquisition (SLA) since 1960s, people have gradually realized the importance of affectivity in language teaching. Foreign language educators and researchers home and abroad have been paying attention to learners' affective variables in language learning. A large number of studies show that learners'affective variables are closely interconnected with language study.Language teachers have gradually realized foreign language teaching must be based on all the related psychological elements from the students. This will bring about all active factors from individuals as a result they can take an active part in English learning. Students'active emotion can create a healthy mental state which is good for language learning, while negative one will impede the language learning.American psychologist Stephen. P. Krashen pointed out in his "Affective Filter Hypothesis" that the stronger the affective filter was, the less the input to language system was. From the basic theories in SLA—Krashen's "Affective Filter Hypothesis" and "Input Hypothesis", it is not difficult to figure out affective factors are closely related to English learning.The author has found out by questionnaires and interviews that too much anxiety makes students fear of participating in English class activities; lack of intrinsic motivation in learning English poses great difficulty in lasting interest in study; if teachers adopt cooperative learning method, the students will pluck up their courage to take part in class activities. What is more, teachers are supposed to create relaxing and active classroom atmosphere by keeping harmonious and friendly relationship with the students, which is not only important in teaching performance but also is a part of the success in students'learning.Based on the theories of second language acquisition, this thesis aims to investigate the relationship between affectivity and listening teaching and learning. Especially it has explored the factors such as motivation, anxiety and self-esteem by qualitative and quantitative research analysis. New and effective ways to improve learners'listening skills are put up by the author based on theories of second language acquisition and her own teaching experience. One hundred and fifty non-English major college students from Shanghai Institute of Technology (SIT) are chosen in the research. Students from four classes are divided into two EC (experiment class) and two CC (controlled class). EC is instructed with new teaching approaches while CC with traditional teaching methods. The results of questionnaires are analyzed and indicate new activities can reduce students'anxiety, develop their intrinsic motivation, enhance their self-esteem and create a friendly and relaxing classroom atmosphere for learners.