An Investigation Into The Application Of Affective Factors In Higher Vocational English Teaching

As the humanistic psychology develops, nowadays the important roles of affective factors in higher vocational English teaching and learning have already been universally accepted in our country. However, there are few empirical studies related to the actual situation of applying the affective factors in the higher vocational English teaching at the moment.Based on the previous theories and researches abroad and at home, the present research is implemented among 20 English teachers and 240 students of Grade Two from four higher vocational colleges by questionnaires, classroom observation and interviews. The research is expected to investigate the following three problems from perspectives of teachers’ self-evaluation and students’ evaluation:(1) What is the overall situation of the teachers applying affective factors in higher vocational English teaching? (2) On aspect of the teachers applying affective factors in higher vocational English teaching, what problems still exist? (3) On aspect of the teachers applying affective factors, what are differences between comprehensive vocational colleges and specialized vocational colleges?The research results are as follows:(1) English teachers in higher vocational colleges have begun to lay emphasis on the application of affective factors in the classroom teaching and pay attention to the students’ affective problems in recent years. (2) On aspect of the teachers applying affective factors in actual English classroom teaching, there is an inconsistence between the teachers’ self-evaluation and the students’ evaluation according to the survey results, the research data reflect certain problems that should not be ignored in the current higher vocational English teaching. For example, the classroom activities are not varied, the teaching models are too simplex, there is less interaction between teachers and students, and the students’ self-esteem is disregarded when the teachers evaluate the students and so on. (3) On aspect of the teachers applying affective factors, the situation of teachers applying affective factors in specialized vocational colleges is better than that in comprehensive vocational colleges, differences between the two types of colleges are mainly reflected in the following four aspects: overall situation of teachers applying affective factors, concern over students’ self-esteem and anxiety, concern over classroom transactions, and concern over teacher-student relationship and empathy. According to the research findings, some pedagogic suggestions are made aiming to better apply affective factors in higher vocational English teaching.