An Investigation Into Affective Factors In English Learning At Primary Schools

Learning affect refers to the aspects of emotion,feelings,mood and attitude in the learning process,which conditions learners' behavior and influences their learning outcomes.Sustaining learners' positive affect is the key to successful English learning.From the promulgation of English New Curriculum Standards in 2001,primary school English teachers have reached the consensus that pupils' positive affect in English learning should be cultivated.However,the author finds the English teachers can not adequately put the affect aims of the English New Curriculum Standards into the teaching practice.The author hopes that through the investigation and analysis of the current situation of the three affective factors in English learning,which are motivation,anxiety and self-concept,the primary English teachers can understand the meanings and significance of the three affective variables,reflect the past advantages and disadvantages in the affective teaching,transfer their awareness to action and modify their teaching strategies.Pupils' positive English learning affect can be motivated and sustained in the long run.The English class in primary school is full of energy and enthusiasm.The ultimate goal of education for whole person development can be reached.In the research,the theoretical foundations are theories of motivation,anxiety and self-concept in foreign Language learning.The subjects are 93 pupils of Grade 5 in one primary school and 10 primary school English teachers,who are all from Boshan District of Zibo City.There are three research questions.The first one is what the positive aspects of pupils' current affective situations are.The second one is what the deficiencies and their corresponding reasons are.The third one is what the English teaching strategies of making up the gaps are.The research instruments are questionnaires survey from pupils and interviews from teachers and pupils.The data of questionnaires are processed by the Statistical Package for Social Science 19.0(SPSS)for windows.The findings of the investigation are as follows.The positive aspects of pupils' current affective situations in English learning are that pupils have strong intrinsic motivation,instrumental motivation and efficacy motivation,low anxiety and high oral and listening English self-concepts.The deficient aspects are that it is hard for pupils to sustain their motivation,anxieties are obstacles hindering pupils from going forward,pupils' reading and overall English self-concepts have potential to be realized.The reasons for the unsustained motivation are not engaging the English class,not perceiving the value of English learning,less experience to use English,bad preview habits and review habits and so on.Anxieties are mainly correlated with their oral English proficiency and partially with their experiences,characteristics,expectancy and teachers' evaluation.The causes of unrealized expected reading and overall English self-concepts are that phonics rules haven't been practiced systematically and adequately,pupils' English vocabulary and reading are limited,English learning experience and academic achievement are not ideal.In order to make up the gap,the teaching strategies should be taken include,estabilshing positive psychological conditions,optimizing the relationship with the pupils,maintaining classroom discipline,creating supportive atmosphere,enhancing the learners' language-related values,making the curriculum relevant for them,setting learners' proximal subgoals,improving the quality of the learning experience,cultivating pupils' good language learning habits,enhancing their self-efficacy,relying on curriculum resources and improving learners' English self-concept.Primary school is the initial stage both in English learning and human life.Cultivating English learning affect is of great significance to pupils' development.The author hopes that the investigation can provide theoretical support and practical suggestions to the positive affective cultivation in primary school English teaching.