A Study On Correlations Between The Three Factors Of Affective Filter Hypothesis And English Reading Achievement Of Rural Middle School Students

The empirical study is based on the English reading status of rural middle school students.The present researches on the correlations between emotional factors and English reading achievement mainly focus on college students or senior high school students,this study extends the research subjects to rural middle school students,and selects 60 seven-graders from a rural middle school in Nanyang City of Henan Province.It aims to explore the emotional factors affecting the English reading achievements of rural middle school students,and the relevance between the three affective filters of reading motivation,reading self-confidence and reading anxiety and the English reading achievements.The study raises three research questions around Krashen’s“Affective Filter Hypothesis":1.What are the status quo and reasons of English reading motivation,self-confidence and anxiety among students in rural middle school?2.What extent do the three affective filter factors affect English reading achievements of rural middle school students?3.What’s the relevance between the three affective filter factors and the students’English reading achievements?Three research methods are used:questionnaire survey,test and interview.Firstly,give out the three questionnaires:Motivation for Reading Questionnaire,Self-confidence Scale in Reading and Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale,which are to measure the students’manifestation in reading motivation,reading self-confidence and reading anxiety.Secondly,test students’reading achievements in the mid-term exam,and analyze the collected data with SPSS17.0 software.Finally,select four students for interview randomly.The main results are as follows:1.Rural middle school students have strong English reading motivation and self-confidence.Examination motivation is the main reading motivation of rural seven-graders.Students generally have high reading self-confidence because of the relatively simple knowledge.Reading anxiety has a significant effect on the English reading achievements of rural middle school students.Unfamiliar background and topic,as well as the affective and attitude towards English reading are the main reasons of the students’ English reading anxiety.2.There is a positive and moderate correlation between the two dimensions of English reading motivation and English reading achievements for rural middle school students:Importance(r=0.467,p<0.01)and Grades(r=0.433,p<0.01).76.5%of the students have moderate English reading anxiety.There is a negatively significant relationship between moderate anxiety and English reading achievements(r=-0.784,p<0.01),and also a negatively significant relationship between high anxiety and English reading anxiety(r=-0.767,p<0.01).It is proved that the different influence of different reading motivation dimensions on English reading achievements exists among the students with different anxiety levels:Recognition has a significantly positive correlation with English reading achievements for students with low level of English reading anxiety(r=0.211,p<0.05).Importance(r=0.537,p<0.01),Grades(r=0.496,p<0.01)and Competition(r=0.431,p<0.01)have stronger positive correlations on English reading achievements for students with moderate anxiety.Curiosity(r=0.503,p<0.01)and Challenge(r=0.496,p<0.01)have relatively strong positive influences on English reading achievements for student with high anxiety.3.There is a correlation between the three affective factors of Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis and the students’ English reading achievements:reading motivation and reading confidence are positively correlated with English reading achievements;reading anxiety is negatively correlated with English reading achievements.Based on the above research results and combined with teaching practice,this study also puts forward some suggestions to better improve the English reading achievement of rural middle school students.