Examining Correlation Between Junior High School Students’ Academic Emotions And Teacher Autonomy Support In English Learning

Affective factors play a role in the Second Language Acquisition.Emotional experiences that junior high school students have in the English learning process exert great influences on their academic achievements.Their academic emotions thus deserve attention.Teachers,as the facilitators to promote students’ learning and personal development,offering autonomy support to inspire their initiatives and building up an ideal teacher-student relationship.Although some studies focused on students’academic emotions and teacher autonomy support,investigations that explore the correlation between them are rare.Moreover,a few studies merely focus on a certain type of academic emotions with no subject background.To fill in the research gap of this field,the current study aimed to delve into the correlation between junior high school students’ academic emotions and their teacher autonomy support in English learning.Three research questions are addressed as follows:1.What is the status quo of junior high school students’ academic emotions and the teacher autonomy support in English learning?2.What factors influence their academic emotions in English learning?3.Is there a correlation between junior high school students’ academic emotions and teacher autonomy support in English learning?If yes,what kind of correlation?Participants of the present study are 196 students from Grade Seven and Grade Eight of the author’s practicum junior high school.Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to gather quantitative and qualitative data.By analyzing the data,the following results are found:1.Junior high school students have more positive academic emotions when they learn English.Most of the students are generally hopeful and enjoy the experience,while sometimes they feel very anxious and upset.The English teacher autonomy support is at a high level,showing that English teachers provide them with help and support and create a harmonious learning environment,as well as giving them the opportunities to make their own choices to enhance their autonomy.2.Three main factors affecting students’ academic emotions have emerged:students’ academic records and performances,the difficulties in English learning,and teachers’ attitude towards students.3.In English learning,there is a strong positive correlation between positive academic emotions and teacher autonomy support,and a moderate negative correlation between negative academic emotions and teacher autonomy support.However,among negative academic emotions,only boredom and depression are correlated with teacher autonomy support.Based on the above results,some practical suggestions for junior high school students and English teachers are put forward from the perspectives of English learning and teaching to improve students’ positive academic emotions and the quality of learning English.