An Investigation Of English Learning Burnout And Its Causes Among Junior High School Students

Learning burnout syndrome,proposed by psychologists,is characterized by emotional exhaustion,improper behavior and low self-efficacy.Furthermore,learning burnout will hinder students' effective learning and has bad influence on students' physical and psychological health.Therefore,exploring students' English learning burnout is of practical significance in providing effective measures for students to decrease learning burnout.This study aims at exploring the current situation,the affecting factors of junior high school students' English learning burnout,and the relationship between English learning burnout and its affecting factors.372 junior high school students of Baiyun District in Guangzhou took part in the survey which employed the English Learning Burnout Questionnaires,Questionnaire of the Affecting Factors of English Learning Burnout and interviews as measuring tools.Based on the data collected from the questionnaires and interviews,the major findings are summarized as follows: 1)students' English learning burnout level is moderate on the whole,with totally about 36% of students of the sample junior high school students in moderate and serious English burnout level;2)the English learning burnout performance is the most prominent in dimension of low self-efficacy,followed by the dimension of inappropriate behavior and emotional exhaustion;3)the students' English leaning burnout shows some demographic characteristics as follows: male students more serious than female;grade eight students the most serious,followed by grade nine and grade seven;students with poor English achievement more serious than students with good English achievement;4)there are four effective predictors of English learning burnout,including teacher-related factor,student factor,subject-related factor and environmental factor;5)the four dimensions of affecting factors correlate with all sub-scales of English learning burnout significantly.There are linear regression between English learning burnout and its affecting factors,with student factor being the most effective predictor of learning burnout followed by subject-related factor,teacher-related factor and environmental factor.Finally,the author puts forward the following pedagogical suggestions: raising awareness to decrease students' English learning burnout;arousing students' interest in learning English;increasing the students' linguistic confidence and self-efficacy;fostering students' English learning motivation;creating a relaxing class atmosphere and harmonious relationship with students.