A Study On English Learning Frustration In Rural Junior Middle Schools

With the development of English teaching in rural junior middle schools,the importance of English has been recognized by all the people.However,in recent years,it has been found that the students' interest decreases with the increase of grades.During the teaching,the author found that due to the more difficult vocabulary,longer sentences and more obscure grammar,more and more students,especially in higher grades,have a feeling of helplessness in learning after having failed the tests several times.What's worse,they attribute the failure to lack of intelligence and ability,which will lead to diminished motivation.Gradually,the feeling of frustration comes into being.Though frustration is one of the subjects of psychological science,it has a close relationship with education and English instruction.Therefore,frustration in learning has been widely studied at home and abroad.However,the studies are still inadequate in the coverage of different subjects and in the application of the methodology.In view of the confusion in dealing with frustration in English teaching practice and of the shortcomings in the research,this study aims to conduct an empirical survey of the current situation of the frustration in English learning and proposes a series of strategies to deal with the feeling of frustration.Empirically,this study aims to conduct a systematic research on the questions: 1)what is the influence of the English learning frustration on the rural junior middle school students? 2)What are the main causes of the English learning frustration? Using the empirical method of the adapted questionnaire,the author took 160 rural junior middle school students as samples in a certain region of China and took Microsoft Office Excel 2003 as a tool of data analysis.The results generated from the analysis of the data reveal that(1)the rural junior middle school students' English learning factors(learning enthusiasm,initiative and confidence)have been influenced a lot after encountering the frustration in the course of learning;(2)among the factors that lead totheir frustration,the schools' facilities,the teachers' concept and their self-awareness are the main influencing factors.Theoretically,based on the contemporary theories of elasticity,frustration education theories and the findings of the empirical survey of the current situation in English learning,this study proposes a series of strategies which can be adopted by the teachers and the students themselves.It includes the strategies of enhancing the overall competence of teachers to lessen the source of frustration,facing setbacks correctly and promoting the home-school cooperation in rural areas,etc.This study may contribute to English teaching and learning in rural areas both practically and academically.In terms of educational practice,this study may hopefully enhance the teachers' understanding and relieve English learning frustration.As for the teaching research,this study may hopefully help to broaden the scope of learning frustration studies.