Research On Strategies For Developing Students’ Positive Affective Factors In English Teaching In Senior High School

The New Curriculum Standard attaches importance to students’affective factors in its course objectives and placement standard. It points out,"maintaining positive attitudes is the key to the success of English learning. Teachers should stimulate students’interest for learning English, guide them to convert interest into constant motivation, build self-confidence and be willing cooperate with others in order to develop positive and aggressive character." The reason why the New Curriculum Standard lays great emphasis on affective factors lies in their connotation and important roles in English learning process.At present, with the advancement of the New Curriculum Standard teaching, English teaching research in high schools has given widespread concern and attention to the role of affective factors in English learning. On the basis of a large number of empirical studies, some English teaching experts put forward the concept of affective education psychology, and explore the teaching strategies to optimize teaching by affective education. Many English teachers, with the help of their own teaching experience, try to probe into what role the affective factors play in English learning and how to inspire students’ thirst for knowledge and exploring spirit through learning activities and make students learn English in an relaxing and enjoyable atmosphere in order to acquire English skills, develop the habit of autonomous learning and inquiry learning, and ultimately improve their overall English learning efficiency.This thesis, based on the studies conducted at home and abroad, and combined with teaching practice, discusses the influences of affective factors, especially attitude, motivation and personality, on English learning. Then, with the help of case analysis, it proposes that teachers should develop students’positive attitudes, enable them to regain English learning interest, have strong confidence in learning English, and constantly improve their English grades through their own efforts and cooperative learningThe research demonstrated in the thesis takes the two classes of the second year students in a senior high school as the research objects, one is the controlled class, the other is the experimental class. The controlled class and the experimental class are similar in class size, student gender, and English level. The English teacher of the two classes is the author of the thesis. The English teaching materials and schedule forthe two classes are all the same.This research takes the students’ journals, the questionnaires and the teacher’s observations as the instruments to investigate the effect of affective factors on the students’ English learning. For the English teachers of big classes in senior high schools, students’ journals not only can help the teachers better understand the students’ emotional changes in time, but also can effectively improve the students’ English writing ability.This thesis, according to the analysis of the investigation results, presents with the strategies of group conferencing and cooperative learning for developing students’positive attitudes, building up confidence step by step in order to get the most out of students’ positive affective factors, overcome negative affective factors, and improve students’ English learning outcome. Teaching practice has proved that group conferencing and cooperative learning are of great benefits to the teachers in playing guiding roles and to the students in cooperation learning. Through group conferencing, the teachers can help students cope with their specific difficulties in English learning, and by encouragements, stimulate the students’enthusiasm for learning English, strengthen students’ confidence in learning English. Through cooperative learning, the students can increase the awareness of mutual help and cooperation; enhance sense of responsibility and team spirit in the process of accomplishing learning tasks.In conclusion, this thesis elaborates the specific problems encountered in English teaching practice in senior high schools. The research methods adopted are of great feasibility in practice and in line with the present teaching practice; therefore, it can offer some guidance for English teachers in the senior high schools.