A Study On Academic Adaptability Of State-funded English Normal Freshmen

Academic adaptability is considered as an important predictor of students' academic achievement as well as psychological health.However,academic maladjustment is prevalent among college students especially those freshmen embarking the transition to the college.Therefore,it is essential to explore college freshmen's academic adaptability.Lots of research has been conducted on academic adaptability among primary and middle school students.Nevertheless,the research on academic adaptability of college students is relatively insufficient and suffers from such limitations as seldom covering the type of state-funded English normal freshmen who have distinguished characteristics from average college students due to the free education policy.In view of this,based on Feng Tingyong et al.'s(2002)academic adaptability framework as well as other prior related research,the current study aims to analyze the general level of state-funded English normal freshmen's academic adaptability and its influencing factors.Some feasible suggestions and recommendations are also put forward in order to improve their academic adaptability and assist them in adjusting to the college life successfully.The study is conducted to answer the following three questions:1)What is the general level of state-funded English normal freshmen's academic adaptability?2)Are there any differences in their level of academic adaptability when such variables as nationality and origin place are considered?3)What factors affect state-funded English normal freshmen's academic adaptability?Subjects for this study were 79 state-funded English normal freshmen in Central China Normal University.The questionnaire and the interview were adopted as two research instruments:all the 79 students first participated in the questionnaire survey,then 6 of them were randomly chosen for 6 semi-structured interviews separately.Based on the analysis of qualitative statistics and quantitative statistics,this study demonstrates the following findings:First,the overall level of state-funded English normal freshmen's academic adaptability is slightly above medium and the number of students who didn't adapt well is considerable.And students show varied levels in five dimensions of academic adaptability.Second,students' academic adaptability has no significant relationship with students' nationality and origin place.Third,this study finds that academic adaptability is positively correlated with individual factors and school factors.Specifically speaking,learning motivation is the most noteworthy individual factor of academic adaptability and many state-funded English normal freshmen have experienced insufficient learning motivation.In terms of school factors,the study reveals that many students have difficulties in adaptation to campus interpersonal relationship,living environment and college teachers' teaching mode.Based on these findings,some adaptation problems among state-funded English normal freshmen emerged,such as insufficient learning motivation,lack of clear learning goals,poor self-discipline ability and maladjustment to campus relationship and teachers'teaching mode and so on.To deal with these problems and enhance state-funded English normal freshmen's academic adaptability,some recommendations are put forward.To begin with,for state-funded English normal freshmen,their initiatives for college study should be greatly improved.Secondly,college,authorities should provide not only academic help such as goal-setting education but also psychological and emotional support.What's more,college management can be more flexible and connected with students' real interest and benefits.