A Study Of The Influences Of Affective Factors On Minority Preparatory Undergraduates’ English Learning

The purpose of this paper is to research the affective condition of minority preparatory undergraduates in the process of English learning and teaching, and analyze its influence on their English achievements. In nowadays English classes, much emphasis is put on cognitive factors rather than on affective factors. Many scholars have realized the important influence of affective factors on English learning and teaching, but most of their researches just focus on the Han students. Few of studies on minority preparatory undergraduates’English learning are available. Based on the significant effects of affectivity on English learning and the lack of related researches on minority preparatory students, the author chooses minority preparatory undergraduates at the Nanchang Institute of Science and Technology as subject of this study to analyze the correlation between their affective factors and English learning. Three major affective factors are studied:motivation, anxiety and attitude, all of which are closely related to English learning.The study aims to promote the student’s English learning efficiency, help teachers know ethnic students better, and finally put forward some suggestions in improving English teaching quality for ethnic students. In order to achieve these goals, the author has investigated157minority preparatory students in Nanchang Institute of Science and Technology to examine their current situation of affect in English learning and correlation between affective factors and their English achievements in the final English exams on the basis of the collected data. Both questionnaires and interviews are applied in order to provide a reliable base for the statistic analysis. An analysis on relationship between affective factors and English performance in respect to five different ethnic nationalities and female and male students have been conducted with the purpose to give pedagogical advices for different students.The result of the research finds a positive relationship between national students’English scores and their learning motivation. Most of the students hold an obvious instrumental motivation like passing the CET4or CET6, etc. However, only an integrative motivation shows a significant correlation with their English achievements. As to the learning attitude, nearly all the students hold a positive attitude toward English learning, English speaking people and their culture. The data analysis shows that learning attitude is closely connected with student learning efficacy. What’s more, it has proved that the minority preparatory student’s ethnic identity would not do a negative effect on their English learning, but on the contrary it speeds up their English learning. The outcome of the investigation also indicates that many a student bears a high level of anxiety in learning English, especially when they have to speak English in class. A negative correlation between anxiety and English learning achievements has been proved in the paper. Finally, the analysis on English grades and affective factors in respect to five national minority students of both genders indicates that students from the different national minority and genders have demonstrated various degree of differences in their affectivity which interfere their performance in their final English exam.