A Study Of Affect In Chinese Secondary Vocational School English Classes

Affect is the link between the teacher and the students in teaching and learning. In English teaching, active, healthy and pleasant affect has an important influence on the development of students'understanding and mastering English and their ability of using English comprehensively. In school education, however, still the development of intelligence and knowledge is given full attention and the cultivation of affect is neglected to some degree for various reasons. So is the situation of English learning and teaching in secondary vocational schools. Moreover, English learning and teaching in secondary vocational schools has difficulties different from those in high schools. Researchers in affect education domain mostly put high school students and college students into their study; but they rarely put students and teachers from secondary vocational schools into their consideration. My thesis aims to study the present situation of affective factors in secondary vocational school and propose the ways to apply affective education in practice.This thesis first presents a brief review of affect study home and abroad, from which we can see both western and Chinese educators and teachers advocate affective teaching in foreign language education. Researches on the schools'situations in China show that it is of great significance to explore cultivating students'affect in English learning and teaching in secondary vocational schools. Then the thesis introduces several fields of educational theories: humanistic psychology theory, constructivism and Krashen's Affective Filter Hypotheses as the theoretical bases. The theories of constructivism and humanism are the theoretical base of the study of affective education. Piaget emphasizes the process of cognitive construction is the process of affective construction in his theory of affective development. Humanism theory plays stress on the importance of the learners'inner world and places the individual's thoughts, feeling, and affects at the forefront of all human development. Based on the theories of educational psychology and methodology of foreign language teaching, the present study aims to show that attention to affect in English classroom teaching and employing proper instructional strategies are conducive to students'positive and healthy affect growth and a more holistic development. Based on the research result of domestic and international scholars in this field, this thesis explores the ways of putting affective factors into practice, improving the charming of English teacher in English teaching in order to win the students'trust and respect.This thesis consists of six parts totally. The first part is introduction, which introduces the purpose and realistic meaning of applying affective teaching in secondary vocational school. The second part is literature review, which mainly discusses the present situation of affective education home and abroad. The third part explains affective theories. The fourth part introduces a questionnaire. Based on the survey of questionnaire, the thesis specially analyzes item by item the affective factors that learners present in their English learning process. The fifth part discusses the application of affective education in the process of English teaching in secondary vocational school. And the last part concludes this paper and points out the limitation and the shortage of this research.