英语课堂焦虑对小学生英语学习的影响文学学士.docx

1、英语课堂焦虑对小学生英语学习的影响文学学士AbstractNowadays people are increasingly aware of the emotion in foreign study. On Affective Filter Hypo thesis, American language educationist S.D. Larson pointed out that relaxation and anxiety both play an important role. It is visible to see that anxiety may be the most affe

2、ctive element in language learning. This paper mainly states the wide occurrence of anxiety in pupils English class and explores the sorts and reasons of pupils anxiety in English class. Many results show that anxiety has been found to be correlated with English-learning achievement among different

3、groups of people in various contexts. In order to explore primary school students English learning anxiety，this paper reveals what are the most effective strategies in English teaching to ease the state of anxiety for pupils. Ultimately, some problems worth noticing of researching anxiety have been

4、put forward.Key words: English class; pupil; anxiety中文摘要在英语学习过程中，人们越来越关注学习者的情感因素。美国语言教育学家克拉申在他的情感过滤学说中指出,焦虑或放松在情感过滤中起着关键性的作用。可见焦虑可能是语言学习中最大的情感障碍。本文主要指出了在小学英语课堂上焦虑情绪的广泛存在性，探讨了小学生英语课堂焦虑情绪的种类和引发的原因。许多先前调查结果显示，不同性别、英语课堂气氛、学生成绩和师生关系都会是引发小学生英语课堂焦虑的主要因素。此外，本研究者结合与教师教学活动相关的焦虑因素，提示教师应采取积极的措施帮助学生减轻外语焦虑，以提高英语学

5、习的效率。最后，文章指出了关于更多对小学生外语课堂焦虑研究的呼吁。关键词：英语课堂；小学生；焦虑1. IntroductionWith the rapid pace of humanism psychology, the focus of teaching methods started to shift from how to teach to how to learn. Educational workers transfer the way to research all kinds of elements influencing learners English study from

6、researching teaching methods in rapid succession. Among so many elements, affective quality is no doubt the most important one of them. And the feeling of anxiety in English class, as one of the significant element for English learner, has become an increasing researching topic. With the age of Engl

7、ish learner is becoming younger and younger, more and more pupils began to have English course. From the autumn of 2001, education department gradually set up English course in primary schools. After doing some research both at home and abroad, I have found that the greater part of research object i

8、s senior and higher educational students. And there is rarely research of pupils in state of anxiety in English class. Moreover, most of the researches elaborate the theoretical statement of affective quality but not involve in actual situation where pupils with foreign educational teaching feel anx

9、iety. In fact, anxiety of English learning is spreading in pupils. In order to improve our efficiency in English teaching in primary school, this paper has a deep analysis dealing with pupils by leasing their state of anxiety.1.1 definition of anxietyAnxiety is the distress or unpleasant feelings ca

10、used by upcoming danger or potential threats in life. According to the encyclopedia, it is defined as follows: anxiety is an uneasy and scared mood condition that occurs when an individuals self-esteem is under continual pressure triggered by worries that one may not be able to achieve a goal or ove

11、rcome an obstacle. It often involuntarily affects ones mental, cognitive, behavior and somatic states. Its main symptoms include psychological and physiological anxieties. As a matter of fact, anxiety is an inherent reaction of self-preservation of humankind, appropriate amount of which will benefit

12、 ones life existence and daily life while excessive amount of which will hold back work, studies and life.1.2 The cause of pupilanxiety in English learningStudents anxieties are caused by interior factors of the individual or exterior factors of the environment. These factors interwoven together tri

13、ggered anxieties in the process of learning English, thus affecting the learning effects. It has been observed that classroom anxiety is gradually emerging to the surface as pupils lose the initial curiosity confusion about the English classes. It is also notable that most parents cannot properly tu

14、tor their children as they can in other subjects, since English is newly added to the curriculum. So what they do is simply to emphasis the importance of English learning. Once the pupils cannot adapt themselves to the teaching in class, they will feel uneasy and afraid of difficulties when faced wi

15、th a heavy load of information. If they have not formed good habits of learning, it is quite likely that they will lose interest and confidence in learning and feel anxious. Anxiety of different levels and forms will have an impact on learning effects.1.3 Literature review of state of anxiety in Eng

16、lish learningFrom the 1970s, foreign teaching methods started to shift from how to teach to how to learn. One important research area is about individual differences. Under such circumstance, some researchers also began to pay attention to affective quality like attitude, motivation, disposition, an

17、xiety, empathy, confidence and other element in influencing language study. And the word “anxiety” has been followed with interest. Reprehensive characters in this area are Hurwitz(1986), Philips(1992), change(1994), gunshot and sparks(1996), aide(1994) and change(1998).These scholars had done a gre

18、at deal of research in purpose language learning in different situation and the relationship with anxiety. For example, Hurwitz considered that anxiety in English class may contain three aspects: communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation), and General Feeling of Anxiety. He also design

19、ed the FLACAS (Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale) which was later widely used in foreign language study. In our country, some educational workers have done some research on anxiety. Liu runqing have considered that being absolutely free from anxiety does not benefit to students. So as to thos

20、e who are completely in state of anxiety. The moderate state of anxiety is the best. At the same time, some educational workers also make positive contribution to the research of anxiety. For example, the author of the book (The Influence of Foreign Teacher Manner on Student English Learning) Chen j

21、ing and Deng xiaofang analysis how the foreign teacher influence the student English learning in reading, writing, and listen comprehension. They also pointed out that without any state of anxiety and within higher state of anxiety both do harm to learners English study, yet the moderate degree of a

22、nxious feeling can benefit to English learning. Such researches above all make improvement to the study of anxiety.2. State of Anxiety Influence Primary School Students in English learning2.1 The reaction of English Classroom Anxiety to PupilsAnxiety is a state of mood. The kind of mood conducive to

23、 the fulfillment of tasks is called positive mood, while the kind impeding the completion of goals is called negative mood. As a general rule, anxiety is categorized as a negative mood as opposed to happiness, a positive mood. However, anxiety shifts between negative and good moods as its levels cha

24、nge in the actual practice of classroom teaching. In this sense, anxiety and happiness are not absolutely opposing experience of mood. There are three levels of anxiety: moderate, low and high. The moderate level has positive effects on classroom English learning of pupils while the latter two are p

25、roved to be otherwise. Detailed symptoms are as follows.2.1.1 Fidgety. This mood naturally occurs when pupils have been nervous for a long time. The symptoms are quite obvious as pupils too young to have a good control over themselves. Fidgety of all kinds can contribute to restlessness, palpitation

26、 and dizziness, which may lead to pupils failure to control their behaviors, such as wriggling, playing with hair or clothes, trembling, or other symptoms indicating illness such as complaints about headaches, tweaks of muscles and indefinable pains in body.2.1.2 Auto punition.In the mood of anxiety

27、 in class, pupils will feel scared of the English studies. That is, they are afraid of speaking, writing or reading in the wrong way. They cannot demonstrate what they are capable of under such circumstances, so they will have suffer losses of marks in English tests, which in turn adds to their guil

28、ty feelings. They often reproach and doubt themselves. This is a vicious cycle that hinders English learning in class.2.1.3 Sensitiveness. Sensitive pupils are afraid of losing self-esteem as well as being mocked by peers and criticized by teachers. Sometimes pupils take teachers casual looks or rem

29、inder as negative hints or severe criticism.2.1.4 Illusion. In this case, pupils tend to be perfectionists. When they see the progress other students are making, those with anxiety often go to extremes and do not allow themselves to make more mistakes than others. Furthermore, over-anxious pupils wo

30、rk excessively hard on learning English, avoid the public and dare not look at others in the eyes.2.2 The Influence on Pupils English Classroom Anxiety2.2.1 To Influence the Pupils English Listening ComprehensionListening comprehension is a complex process, which does no exist in space, but only sta

31、ys in a complex process, which is more demanding, for listeners cannot go back to what they do not understand. Listening is one of the most important aspects to broaden the pupils interest of English, especially to the pupils who cannot catch the speakers main ideas. The characteristics of listening

32、 materials include speed, pronunciation, length of listening materials, the level of vocabulary and the topic of the materials. At this situation, pupils who is lack of confidence or listening strategies will find that it is difficult to deal with the coming information promptly, thus they feel worr

33、ied and finally fall into a state of anxiety.2.2.2 To Influence the Pupils Oral English Expression and English communicationIn reaction to anxious moods pupils often feel nervous and are at a loss. So they become passive listeners and receivers of knowledge, lacking in opportunities to practice and communica