Affectivity In College English Teaching And Enhancement Of Students' Motivation

Affective factors in education have gained importance with the development of humanistic psychology since the 1960s. Scholars have discovered that affectivity plays a significant role in foreign language learning and teaching. The importance of affectivity in Foreign Language Learning & Teaching is embodied at two different levels. At the surface level, affective factors determine the success or failure in learning and teaching. At the deep level, affectivity is an essential domain of whole-person development parallel to cognition. In this sense, affectivity is not simply an issue of language learning and teaching, nor an issue of education, but an issue of the development of human beings. Therefore, it is indispensable to pay attention to affectivity as well as to cognition in FLT. Attention to affectivity can improve language learning and teaching, in turn, language teaching can contribute in a very significant way to educating students affectively. In recent years in China, more attention has been directed to affective aspects in FLL&T, but most of it is at the theoretical level, the empirical researches are less and insufficient, especially those with college freshmen.In this thesis, the four affective factors in foreign language learning, that is, motivation, anxiety, inhibition and self-esteem, were investigated using quantitative and qualitative analysis. 172 non-English major freshmen in Suzhou University were involved in this study as subjects. The influence of family backgrounds and sex on affective factors was also studied. Motivation types of non-English major freshmen were analyzed by PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and suggestions for ways of improving motivations were raised. The research results showed that various affectivities are intertwined and interrelated, and motivation plays a very important role in successful attainment of language acquisition. College freshmen have low motivation intensity. The instrumental motivation is the main type of motivations. Learners'previous achievement has no significant correlation with self-esteem or motivation;however, it has significant negative correlation with anxiety and inhibition. Girls have higher level of self-esteem, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, instrumental motivation and integrative motivation. And they hold lower inhibition than male students. The motivation intensity of female is also higher than male. Students from urban areas have a higher level of extrinsic motivation,...