The Development Of Positive Affect In College English Teaching

Since development of humanism in the 1960s, scholars have discovered that affect can play an important role in learning process Humanism emphasizes the importance of both cognitive development and affective development. In this sense, it's necessary to pay attention to both cognitive factors and affective factors in teaching and learning process. Attention to affective factors can improve language learning and teaching. However, the influence of traditional educational conception that the development of cognitive skills is our sole educational goal determines that we just pay attention to the cultivation of cognitive skills and neglect the development of affective factors in English learning and teaching process, which can result in low efficiency.Because affective factors play an important role in English language learning, this dissertation proposes that we should try to develop learners'positive affective factors in College English teaching by means of implementing cooperative learning so that learning process can be greatly facilitated. Cooperative learning refers to a system of teaching and learning strategies which take small groups as the basic form of the classroom structure, requiring interaction among group members engaged in tasks in which all members have both something to contribute to and learn from other members. Cooperative learning can develop learners'positive affective factors--- increasing motivation, forming positive attitude, increasing self-esteem and reducing anxiety. This dissertation introduces how to incorporate cooperative learning into classroom to improve positive affective factors and the effective results will be tested by statistical analysis.This dissertation consists of five chapters.Chapter One briefly introduces the background of foreign language learning and teaching research and the significance of this research.Chapter Two provides some theories and assumptions relevant to affect from the perspectives of linguistics, second language acquisition and psychology and offers the definition of Affect. These theories become the theoretical foundation for the whole dissertation.Chapter Three deals with four important affective factors: motivation, attitude, self-esteem and anxiety. Based on former research findings, we can draw such conclusions: motivation provides dynamics while anxiety is the obstacle in learning process; learning with motivation can be more effective and intrinsic motivation should be encouraged; there is a distinction between facilitating anxiety and debilitating anxiety, and the best way to deal with it is to obtain an optimal level; the four factors are not isolated but closely related to each other. All of these research findings of affective factors can be used as the basis for the further research.Chapter Four deals with the function of cooperative learning in developing learners'positive affect in English learning process. The chapter begins with the importance of developing positive affective factors in English learning. Then it presents us with detailed discussion about the cooperative learning, including the definition, the theoretical background, especially the function of developing positive affective factors. Cooperative learning can increase motivation, form positive attitude, increase self-esteem and reduce anxiety. And then it discusses the approaches of implementation of cooperative learning in college English class in detail and some problems that can be encountered when cooperative learning is carried out. At the end of the chapter, it makes use of a study to prove that cooperative learning can develop some positive affective factors.Chapter Five summarizes the major findings of the research, the implication of the research, limitations of the present research and suggestions for the further research.