[转载]Affective Factors in English Teaching
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Affective Factors in English Teaching
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Abstract】 Affective factors play a significant role in
language teaching and learning. This paper argues that
learning-cognition and emotion-are now separated from each other in
English teaching in China, which attaches too much importance to
cognitive side of language learning while neglecting the function
of affective factors. Some relevant problems are exposed in English
teaching with a questionnaire. A detailed analysis is given in this
paper about the functions of affective factors on language
learning. Some suggestions are put forward on this basis.
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Key Words】Affective Factor;
Cognitive Factor;
English Teaching
Ⅰ. Introduction
Foreign language teaching has being highlighted the rationality of
brain and the function of cognition while neglecting the
development of irrationality for so many years, resulting in the
emotional illiteracy. As
the development of humanistic psychology, the affective factors are
paid more and more attention to the language teaching. In order to
make the English teaching develop more smoothly and ideally, the
English teachers must focus on the affective factors in the English
teaching and are hoped to take actions into practice to enhance the
quality of English language teaching by using the theory of the
affective filter hypothesis. (项茂英，2003)
Ⅱ. Affective Factors
2.1The Definition of Affect
One’s affect toward a particular thing or action or situation or
experience is how that thing that action or that situation or that
experience fits in with one’s needs or purposes, and its resulting
affect on one’s emotions(Dulay,Burt&Krashen,1982).In English
teaching, affect will be broadly considered as aspects of emotion,
feeling, mood or attitude which condition
behavior(Arnold&Brown,1999).Researchers have shown the
learners’ affect and state directly influence their study’s
behavior and results.
2.2The Scope of Research for the Affective Factors
There are so many affective factors influence the English
teaching, such as motivation, self-confidence and anxiety, Krashen
calls them “the affective filter factors”. But in the practical
English teaching, there are some other factors influence the
English teaching, including attitude, inhibition, self-esteem,
extroversion and introversion, empathy, classroom transactions and
cross-cultural processes and so on. The following will show the
four main factors of them which affect the foreign language
teaching.
2.2.1 Motivation
It can be defined as an inner drive, impulse, emotion or desire
that moves one to a particular action(Brown,1987).In the early work
of Gardner and Lambert(1972),motivation was seen to be divided into
two very general orientations: integrative and instrumental. The
former refers to a desire to learn the language in order to relate
to and even become part of the target language culture, such as
passing an exam or finding a job. The latter has to do with
practical reasons for language learning, such as getting a
promotion(Arnold,1999). Ellis(1994:508-517) made a
comprehensive induction, besides the two above kinds, there are
also result motivation(deriving from the successful study),target
motivation(inner motivation, when the learners do different tasks
they will enjoy different interest),control motivation(in order to
control the learners of the target language, they have to learn the
language).The better the achievement is, the more intense the
motivation is, the more actively the students perform. When the
students themselves can make the aims and ways of study and
appraisal the process of study, the inner motivation is more
motivated. Arnold and Brown made a general difference: extrinsic
and intrinsic motivation. The former comes from the desire to get a
reward or avoid punishment; the focus is on something external to
the learning activity itself. With intrinsic motivation the
learning experience is its own reward. Research indicates that,
while extrinsic motivation can also be beneficial, learning is most
favorably influenced by intrinsic orientations, especially for
long-term retention. It is clear that motivation is a group of
factors which stimulates one’s behavior and points out one’s
direction, it is crucial to the second language
acquisition.(戴曼纯，2000)
2.2.2 Self-confidence
It is another important affective factor for the foreign language
teaching, it is the basis of psychology that one gets to success
and self-rate to worthiness, no matter cognition or affect,
self-confidence is crucial to them. A large number of studies have
been shown that when self-confidence is protected and encouraged,
the students’ cognitive activities are best, so whether we can
cultivate the students’ self-confidence or how much we can
cultivate will decide whether the teachers teach them successfully,
a successful teacher who firstly must foster the students’
enthusiasm and confidence to their study.（梁梧生，2005）
2.2.3Anxiety
Anxiety is quite possibly the affective factor that most
pervasively obstructs the learning process. It is associated with
negative feelings such as uneasiness, frustration, self-doubt,
apprehensive and tension(Arnold,1999:8).Heron(1989:33)makes
reference to he terms existential anxiety, which arises out of a
group situation that are relevant to the language classroom: will I
be accepted, liked, wanted, will I understood what is going on?
Will I be able to do what I have come to learn?
Ellis differs three kinds of anxiety: dispositive anxiety, once
anxiety and situational anxiety. Dispositive anxiety is a more
long-runned anxiety, it’s also one aspect of character. Once (or
state)anxiety happens in a moment, it is the product of the
combination of dispositive and situational anxiety, situational
anxiety is a kind of anxiety mood which happens in practical
situation or events( such as attending public speech, taking exams
and so on).The competitive nature of students usually derives from
anxiety, because students like comparing themselves with
classmates, once they find others have more ability and performance
than themselves, anxiety will come. Another reason is culture
impact that students worry about they will lose themselves in the
target culture. Under the circumstances of classroom, students
often meet three anxieties: worry about they will not fluent or
right when communicating with the target language; afraid of taking
exams and bring low appraisal. As for the effect of anxiety, we can
divide it into two kinds: facilitative and obstructive anxiety. The
former activates the students to overcome difficulties, challenge
the new study tasks and strive to overcome the feeling of anxiety,
while the latter leads to the students avoid the source of anxiety,
who use the way of escaping the task of
study(Ellis,1994:479-482).The view of Arnold and Brown are
different from it. They think when anxiety is presented in
classroom, there is a down-spiraling effect. Anxiety makes us
nervous and afraid and thus contributes to poor performance; worry
wastes energy that should be used for memory and processing on a
type of anxiety, it should be a extent about anxiety, although it
is difficult to decide the anxiety level. People often have anxiety
before learning a new curriculum or a language, but if one worries
about he can’t master it well. Maybe it will result a longer time
motivation for him, so our ideas about anxiety should not only stop
on the disadvantages.（戴曼纯，2000）
2.2.4Empathy
Empathy is the process of ‘putting yourself into someone’s shoes’.
One need not abandon one’s own way of feeling or understanding, nor
even agree with the positive of the other. It is simply an
appreciation, possibly in a detached manner of the identity of
another individual or culture. It is closely related to cultural
relatively, which frees us from our conditioning and helps us to
recognize that our way is not the only way and possibly not even
the best way (Arnold,1999).Under the condition of classroom,
empathy benefits the language study and communication; which makes
them develop harmoniously.
Ⅲ. The Resolution of the Affective Factors
All above illustrate the four factors that affect the foreign
language study, so how can we overcome these factors to serve for
the foreign language teaching?
3.1Motivation and English Teaching
Teachers should activate the learners’ motivation and foster their
interest of study
According to the theory of Krashen, motivation is the key factor
which decides whether the study successes and the significance of
study as a whole. Interest is an energetic experience, it decides
the significance of study from micro of view. Study motivation
helps interest comes into being, and it also promotes consolidation
and adjustment of motivation.（胡东望，郑黎明，2003）
In the English teaching of classroom, one way is external praise,
we use it to activate student’s motivation; the other is establish
all kinds of study activities to activate their inner motivation.
Examples for the former are gaining good achievement, getting
reward or praise from teachers and parents. That is true for all of
us. One gains higher points than he expects or the usual, which
brings him a lot of happiness, the teachers will praise him in oral
or an object, the parents may also do like that, it enhances the
learners the confidence and finds his worthiness, hence motivation
is increasingly intense and interest becomes highly. Vice versal,
if a student’s achievement is just so so, if the parents say to
him, “if you get a higher point next time, I will give you ten
yuan.” The student may diligent to do his study and listen to the
teacher carefully in class. If the parents keep their promise, he
may have a bigger motivation, this may be called result motivation,
which belongs to the extrinsic motivation, which also benefits the
second language study.
The latter and the most important is inner motivation, which can
last a longer time, so it decides whether the language study can
gain a longer success. The inner motivation is setting up explicit
aims of study by learners themselves, and do it with strict plan
and step, joining in study actively and cooperatively, if they
achieve success, their self-worthiness will be realized, so this
practice provides them with enjoyable experience of study.
Take for instance, if a student wants to pass the College Entrance
Examination and even steps into the first level of the important
undergraduate universities of our country which bring him glories
future, so he must give up the chances of playing and squeeze time
to revise his lessons. The process of doing is the effect of inner
motivation.
3.2Self-Confidence and English Teaching
Teachers should respect every student, encourage them actively to
try to do everything of study; protect their self-esteem and self-
confidence
In the process of teaching, teachers firstly must respect and
believe students, when communicating with students, the wisest way
is do not hurt their self-esteem. Besides creating all kinds of
chances of performance and encouraging them to say more and
practice more, the teachers also give them affirmation in time and
praise them make a progress or innovation , even though it is just
a little. As for the errors, they should not deny them simply, but
guide them to think it over, rectify and make supplement by
themselves as much as possible.
Treat every student fairly, do not treat them by their qualities of
study. As for the students who make higher points we encourage them
with more difficult knowledge while for the poorer students, we
must enhance their self- confidence by offering them some easier
questions, only in that way can they get the sense of success and
find the motivation of study.
If teachers do not allow the students to make mistakes, once they
make a mistake, the teacher criticizes them rigidly and loudly,
their self-esteem will be damaged, and the self-confidence will be
reduced.
In order to reduce errors, teachers must say something cautionally
and correctly. For example, if a teacher knows the name of the
student who will be asked to answer the question, but in the short
time of a class, the teacher maybe can not memorize her name, the
teacher maybe say one student’s left or right to her, a student who
has high self-esteem hears that, her self-esteem will be
destroyed.
So a large number of studies showed that when the self –esteem and
the self-confidence are protected and encouraged, the cognition of
students is best.
3.3Anxiety and English Teaching
It is said that one has no stress, he may has no motivation. So in
order to get greater motivation, one has stress may get success one
day. However, a person has heavy stress is not a good thing, on the
contrary, the light stress is also not a good thing, so there is a
question that how the teachers control the degree of stress, the
stress we say before is also called the anxiety.
In order to reduce the sense of high anxiety, teachers should set
up harmonious and democratic relationship with students.In the
process of teaching, teachers should full of love to their
students, know them and take care of them like their own children,
when teachers face to the students they should always
smile, praise them more and criticize them less, they should full
of confidence to the students. It is known that a relax
surroundings, a graceful face, some warm words and two expectful
eyes, all these can encourage them to learn English very well. So
in that case the sense of fear will become less, the distance
between them will become shorter; the relationship between them
becomes more harmonious and democratic.
The most suffering is placing for the English exam, in order to
relax and weaken anxiety of taking exams, the effective way is
ceasing that way of doing. While teachers should pay more attention
to the process of students’ study not the achievement of some exam.
After taking an exam, teachers should help them to analysis the
reasons why they make so much mistakes, and encourage them to
rectify them and catch up with the other students.
Here is an example for anxiety. Once there was a foreign teacher
came to China for teaching, boys liked sitting behind the classroom
because they did not like answering the questions given by the
teacher voluntarily, they all were very passive, they thought if he
asked them, they would answer the question. How about the teacher?
He thought if they did not say something voluntarily, he would not
ask them to do it. In that case the atmosphere in his class was
very depressing, his expression on his face was very stiff as if he
did not know smile at all. So the students and the teacher did not
cooperate well, at last they could not tolerant each other any
longer, they quarreled and the college fired him.
It shows the students in his class had high anxiety, they did not
like him or feared him because of his expression and the way of
teaching even hated him naming them to answer questions, they
lacked for confidence to themselves, and the teacher did not give
them any reward or encourage at any time, so the relationship
between them is full of incompatibility. So in order to enhance the
quality of foreign language teaching, we must strive to overcome
and use these affective factors actively.
Reassign the vigor of whole class, create the relax atmosphere to
reduce the anxiety of students. For example, mountaineering or hold
football/tennis/the speech/the singing match and so on.
3.4Empathy and English Teaching
Teachers should put themselves into students’ shoes, take
omni-directional consideration for them, so empathy is also very
important to English teaching.
As for the students, empathy embodies teachers should know the
level of cognition comprehensively to their students, take
themselves into students to consider the similar condition and give
proper questions to experience the affect of
students.(古向阳，2005)
To teachers, empathy embodies students should have acute
observation and thinking, cooperate with teachers actively in
class, and have rich affect at the same time. They should
understand and master the teachers’ guide, indication and
implication quickly and well. That is to say they should feel and
know teachers’ affect quickly and get the explicit aims of
study.(古向阳，2005:54)
The above example for anxiety also shows empathy between them does
not exist at all, the teacher did not put himself into the
students’ shoes, the students also did like that, in a word, they
did not consider something for each other, so in the end they all
intrigued and failed in teaching and studying.
Ⅳ. Conclusion
This paper is brought into four parts, the four affective factors:
motivation, self-confidence, anxiety and empathy, which relate to
each other closely, each one can not depart the others to exist
independently. When facing a new language, not everyone has
interest, if he has interest he may have confidence, motivation or
anxiety or may not. If self- confidence is enhanced, motivation
maybe more intense, anxiety may be reduced; if anxiety is reduced,
confidence may be higher, motivation may be consolidated. For the
teachers and students, empathy is embodied in every aspect of
teaching.
All above four affective factors illustrate their influence to the
English teaching and the solution from the perspective of
motivation, self-confidence, anxiety and empathy, the writer does
not analysis it very deeply and comprehensively, in fact they are
some other affective factors influence the foreign language
teaching, such as inhibition, introversion/extroversion, classroom
transactions and so on. Because Krashen advanced the theory of
“affective filter hypothesis”, some researchers set about studying
it, but this is only a simple analysis on the basis of theory and
practice, the affective factors are not carried out much in
teaching or are not carried out at all , so this is one of
directions for the teachers to develop.
