A Study On High School English Underachievers' Non-intelligence Factors

The problem of'underachievers'is universal, which troubles the education world for a long period of time. In China, underachieves are usually called'poor students'or'bad students'and they exist in all kinds of schools. Nowadays, English is widely spread in China, so the number of English underachievers grows rapidly. It's a pity that the society pays little attention to them and their learning difficulty in English, as a result, are neglected. Up to now, there haven't enough empirical researches on English underachievers in high school. Thus, we carry out this exploration about the influence of non-intelligence factors on English underachievers, which tends for making contribution to the educational reformation in China and English teaching in high schools.In the late 19th century, Morgan discovered a kind of reading disability named'alexia'. From then on, educators and psychologists began to focus on learning disabilities. At the beginning, the area of research covered areas from biological make-up to psychological and behavior analysis; later, researchers changed their direction from studying dysgnosia to exploring non-intelligence factors. The study on non-intelligence factors in China was led by Professor Yan Guocai in Shang Normal University in early 1980s. The concept'underachievers'was defined as those students who are of an average IQ, but lack of learning abilities.Based on theories of non-intelligence factors by Pro. Yan, I conducted this study on the status of research and development in non-intelligence factors, English teaching and culture of non-intelligence factors, as well as the training in English teaching to explore the non-intelligence factors. 3 classes, that is, 140 students of a high middle school were surveyed and interviewed. Four factors included in non-intelligence factors (motivation, interest, will, sensibility, character) with three environmental factors(family, school, society) are all studied in detail in order to analyze their influence on the English underachievers. By the way of reviewing literature, distributing questionnaires and interviewing, this study compares different datum between normal students and English underachievers; and finally concludes with several types of non-intelligence influences. Meanwhile, we propose a few teaching and educational strategies for future reference.The study shows that the proportion of English underachievers and normal students is one to ten, and three in seven English underachievers are girls. As supposed, these students are experiencing the effect of non-intelligence factors. Some are short of academic motivation owing to the shortage of success experience; some are lack firm wills when meeting with difficulties; and others can't concentrate on study because of the unsuitable environment. But the result from interview tells that these students are eager to learn and to catch up. Therefore, English teachers are obliged to carry out some effective strategies to satisfy English underachievers. Suggestions such as learning how to attribute correctly and improve self-efficacy; setting up good relationship between students and teachers; cultivating cooperative learning abilities; creating proper environment, are worth referring to.