A Research On The Application Of Affective Factors To Improve English-learning Underachievers In Secondary Vocational School

In recent years,educators and researchers have paid much attention to the effect of affective factors on students' all-round development and the relationship between affective factors and cognition.It is of important practical significance to focus on the English-learning underachievers(ELU)in secondary vocational school and improve them by applying affective factors.The thesis is guided by humanism and Krashen's affective filter hypothesis.Based on the theory of Arnold Jane and Brown H.D.,this thesis analyzes the affective factors which influence English teaching from the following aspects such as attitude,motivation,self-esteem,anxiety,risk-taking,inhibition and the transaction between the teacher and students.It aims to answer the following two questions:(1)How well do affective factors work in improving ELU's English proficiency level in secondary vocational school?(2)What problems occurred in transforming ELUs by applying affective factors?The subjects of the research are 87 students from two higher vocational colleges entrance examination classes in Dongguan Nanbo Vocational and Technical School which is a private secondary vocational school.The papers of higher vocational colleges entrance examination of Guangdong Province in 2014 and in 2015 are used as the papers for pre-test and post-test.In the pre-test,there are 24 ELUs in the experimental class with 44 students altogether and 23 in the control class with 43 students altogether,with no significant difference in their English proficiency and their learning attitude.In the experiment,the author takes charge of implementing English teaching in the two classes.Affective factors are employed to facilitate teaching in the experimental class while traditional regular teaching is adopted in the control class.In the process of affective teaching,the author makes full use of various affective factors and spares no effort to organize class activities elaborately,stimulate the underachievers'learning interest,cultivate their self-confidence and establish good relationship with them.After the three-month experiment,the two classes' result of post-test analyzed with SPSS shows that there is significant difference and the ELUs in the experimental class have higher English proficiency level than those in the control class.Class observation is conducted as well besides the instrument of test to inquire into the underachievers' affective factors in English learning,and compare their in-class affective situation between the two classes.What is more,interview is employed to further understand the cause of the problems found by class observation and students' attitude towards affective teaching.To sum up,the results of tests,class observation and interview with students show that the application of affective factors is helpful in improving the underachievers' English proficiency level and thus transforming them effectively.Therefore,the English teaching by applying affective factors should be advocated in secondary vocational schools.In addition,in the process of experiment and research,some problems and limitations are acquired.When applying affective factors,the teacher has to organize the class activities elaborately,always focus on the ELUs' emotional status,keep good relationship with them etc.,so the teacher has too much load.In addition,because the teacher pays special attention to the ELUs,it is possible to ignore other students and sometimes difficult to finish the teaching task within the stipulated time.All these are problems to be solved for the relevant follow-up teaching and studies.