The Application of Affective Factors to English Teaching

徐倩茹

（西安外国语大学英文学院，陕西 西安 710128）

The Application of Affective Factors to English Teaching

徐倩茹

（西安外国语大学英文学院，陕西 西安 710128）

Education should aim at promoting students’all-round development and unifying cognitive and emotional aspects. However,the reality is that teachers pay too much attention on language cognitive factors and neglect the influence of emotional factorsin language learning.Thisarticle triesto discusshow to use the affective factorsin English teaching so asto enhance students’comprehensive development.

affective factors；English instruction；application

一、Introduction

Krashen（1985:3）puts forward that in the process of second language acquisition,there can be a mental block which stops learners from fully using the comprehensible input they receive for language acquisition.The mental block,known as affective filter, refers to speakers’mental state which covers motivation,confidence and anxiety.

二、Inspirations of Affective Factors on English Instruction

（一）Lowering students’anxiety in English Learning to Enhance Confidence

Students with limited English proficiency usually feel quite worried during their lessons.Anxiety has passive influences on students,because it creates more pressure to students and makes input comprehension more difficult.

Teachers play a supportive and guiding role in the foreign language teaching and learning process,they should understand the existence of anxiety and enrich their knowledge about it.In planning curriculum,teachers should be more responsive tostudents’anxieties and needs.First,teachers should have correct attitudes to students’linguistic errors.Teachers had better be tolerant toward students as long asthoseerrorsdo nothinderthesmooth processof communication.Meanwhile,teachers are supposed to provide more encouraging feedbacks for students.Second,teachers should accept and tolerate differences between students:for high anxiety level students,teachers should give instant,indirect and partial corrections to help students correct mistakes of language forms and contents and maintain their confidence to English;for low anxiety level students, teachers can give pressure to students appropriately in order to trigger students’further reflection.Third,during the class,teachers should encourage students to communicate with others in English bravely. Sometimes,when students are not ready to speak out,teachers should also allow them to keep silent so as to reduce their psychological burden and anxiety.

（二）Analyzing Students’Learning Motivation to Arouse Interest

Learning motivation is the emotion and desire to stimulate students to learn.The main reason why some students don’t do well in English is that they lack strong motivation to learn English.Some major causes can be:firstly,students think English is difficult to learn and have little confidence;secondly,the teaching techniques are inappropriate;thirdly,students are introverted and afraid to making mistakes.For teachers,finding methods to inspire students’learning motivation is essential.First,teachers should give students praise and assist mainlytomake students feel successfully.Next,teachers should arrange lessons according to the level of difficulty and instruct knowledge gradually,making English less hard for students.At last, teachers ought to make learning contents clear and sum up the key points before the end of each class to help students knowwhat should be paid more attention to.

三、Conclusion

Hence,in the process of English teaching,it is significant for teachers to focus more on the emotional factors of students.Through motivating those favorable emotions and managing those obstructive emotions,teachers provide supporting environment where students can develop positive learning attitudes and enhance their learning efficiency.

[1]Krashen,S.D.The Input Hypothesis:Issues and Implications[M]. London:Longman,1985.

[2]范谊,芮渝萍.面向21世纪外语教学论：进路与出路[M].重庆:重庆出版社,1998.

[3]贾冠杰.外语教学心理学[M].南宁:广西教育出版社,1996.

[4]夏纪梅:现代外语课程设计理论与实践[M].上海:上海外语教育出版社,2003.

H319

A

1005-5312（2015）02-0203-01