A Study On The Factors And Countermeasures Of Junior Middle School Students' English Learning Frustration

Frustration theory rose at the beginning of 20^th century and developed in the first half of the century.From then,many researchers devoted themselves into the area of frustration,anti-frustration and frustration education etc.Some researchers conducted empirical studies and gave their suggestions.Studies on frustration are not rare to see both in abroad and domestic but researches on frustration combined with a specific discipline are just a few,especially on language learning.In such case,this study tries to combine these areas and find out the causes of junior middle school students'English learning frustration under the guidance of frustration theory and Second Language Acquisition theory.This is a new attempt which can enrich the area of frustration theory and English learning as well as provide implications for future studies.Meanwhile,it has practical significance for guiding teachers,parents,students as well as schools to release students'sense of frustration in English learning.This study tries to answer the following questions:?1?What is the current situation of junior middle school students'English learning frustration??2?What are the main causes of junior middle school students'English learning frustration??3?What are the countermeasures to junior middle school students'English learning frustration?Questionnaire,interview and case study were conducted in this study.The thesis explained the working definition of frustration and learning frustration at first based on the previous studies,and introduced frustration theories as well as Second Language Acquisition theories.Next,a survey was conducted at four junior middle schools,two of which locate in Nantong urban area and the others are from suburban area.By making reference on other researchers'questionnaires,a self-designed questionnaire with 200 pieces were sent out to students who are in grade 8 and 167effective ones were collected.After transforming the questionnaires into statistic data in the computer,the analysis was conducted.Then the current situation and factors of junior middle school students'English learning frustration were revealed.In addition,based on the questionnaire and teachers'feedback,3 students were selected as interviewees from the low,median and high sense of English learning frustration background from each school for the purpose of acquiring support for the result of questionnaire as well as provide more all-sided results for the research.At last,on the basis of the questionnaire and interview,some countermeasures are raised and case study was conducted on 3 students form H school for about 4 months.The current situation of junior middle school students'English learning frustration is as below:?1?junior middle school students'English learning frustration is at median level in Nantong;?2?there is not significant difference of junior middle school students'English learning frustration between boys and girls,but in general,a trend shows girls'frustration is slightly lower than that of boys;?3?no significant difference of junior middle school students'English learning frustration is showed between suburban and urban area of Nantong,but a trend that suburban students'English learning frustration is higher than urban students'is occurred;?4?there is a significant negative relationship between students'language proficiency and their English learning frustration;?5?the result indicates that students'English learning frustration is not significantly varied by students'English proficiency.But a trend reveals that students with low level of English have a higher sense of English learning frustration than that of students with high level of English;?6?significant low negative relationship is showed between parents'education background and students'frustration;?7?students have an optimistic perception to English learning frustration but their reactions to English learning frustration in real life are totally different.In addition,according to the data analysis,there is a significant positive relation between the five dimensions and students'English learning frustration.Among them,parents,teachers as well as testing are highly correlated with students'English learning frustration.Meanwhile,classmates'competition and students'self-perception of frustration have a median correlation with students'English learning frustration respectively.It shows that the combination of the above five independent variables significantly predict junior middle school students'English learning frustration,with all of them significantly contributing to the prediction except students'self-perception to frustration,which indicates that all of these factors except students'self-perception can directly cause students'English learning frustration.Among them,teachers as well as classmates'competition contribute most to predicting junior middle school students'English learning frustration.Hence,the factors of junior middle school students'English learning frustration are:parents,teachers,testing and classmates'competition.Among them,teachers and classmates'competition are the vital factors.In view of the current situation and major factors of junior middle school students'English learning frustration,case study finds that students'English learning frustration can get eased to some extent by adopting some countermeasures.While,to solve the problems of students'English learning frustration,the action can start with teachers.Teachers'various teaching methods,positive feedback and relaxed learning environment can helpfully filter students'negative emotions in English learning context.At the same time,by playing the role of“psychological consultant”,teachers can know more about students so that help them form correct conception to failure.Apart from that,teachers can build a bridge between parents and students to help students ease their English learning frustration from parents.In addition to that,to help students deal with English learning frustration,pedagogical implications from the study for parents,schools and students are:?1?setting up counseling rooms and accomplishing their actual value are the urgent affairs for schools especially in the foundational stage;?2?it is wise for parents to have appropriate expectations on their children and build a harmonious family atmosphere;?3?adopting psychological suggestion,forming a correct evaluation on teachers and themselves,finding a suitable way to release frustration as well as exploring appropriate method to learn English can also help ease students'frustration in learning English.