四、附论文模版：
Study on the Interaction of Psychological Factors and
English Speaking
Written by
Li Jing
Directed by
XXX
A thesis
Submitted in partial fulfillment
Of the requirements for the degree of
Bachelor of Art in the School of Foreign Languages
Guizhou University for Nationalities
April 2007
A Study on the Interaction of Psychological Factors and English Speaking
Thesis statement: The study of the interaction of psychological factors and English speaking can improve the teaching of spoken English.
1.Introduction
2.The Five Important Psychological Factors in Spoken English
2.1. Motivation
2.2. Anxiety
2.3 Self-esteem
2.4 Extroversion
2.5Self-concept
3.The Application of the Five Psychological Factors in Teaching and Learning Oral English
3.1. The “Psychology-based” Teaching Approach
3.2 The Realization of the Approach in Spoken English Teaching Practice
3.2.1 Teachers Responsibility
3.2.2 Students Duty
4.Conclusion
Abstract: Spoken English is generally considered an important part in English as a Foreign Language classroom. Many linguists, educationists, and even English teachers have been exploring ways of improving spoken English. They investigated factors concerning English speaking, such as social factors, teachers’ influences, learners’ strategies. However, they still failed to produce effective ways of teaching spoken English. This paper attempts to find effective ways to teach spoken English by exploring the interaction of students’ psychological factors and their oral English.
Key Words: interaction; motivation; anxiety; extroversion; self-esteem
A Study on the Interaction of Psychological Factors and
English Speaking
1.Introduction
For the past several decades, with the development of the international communication, English has become the world language. The teaching of oral English is improved to priority in the nations using English as a foreign language, including China. However, there has been a heated debate over the English speaking ability of Chinese university students. From then on, many linguists, educationists, and even the common English teachers（Littlewood , 2000;陈颉,1997; 贾冠杰, 1998; 刘森, 2000; 王蔷, 2000) have been devoted to explore the ways of improving spoken English. They investigated the factors related to the English speaking, such as social factors, teachers’ influences, learners’ strategies. These researches achieved a great success in the establishment of the concerning theories. However, based on these researches, our teaching methods and techniques, to a larger extent, still failed to produce effective English speaking. To discover the reasons, many researchers（Cook, 1978; Rivers, 1964; McDonough,1981）turn to study the learners’ psychology.
Nowadays we have become increasingly aware that individual learners are different from each other. They are not simply soft clay, waiting to be shaped by teacher, but have their own personalities, motivations, and other psychological characteristics. These elements affect how learners act in the spoken English learning.
2.The Five Important Psychological Factors in Spoken English Teaching and Learning
Language is a tool of communication, so as to English. The ultimate aim of English teaching is to cultivate the students’ ability of speaking and communication. Among the four skills of English learning----reading, writing, listening and speaking, reading is perhaps the easiest, while speaking the most difficult to acquire(Huang X & M Van Naerssen., 1985: 287-307). That is because speaking is an active skill, requiring students to combine the words into sentences without preparation, and no time to revise.
During this process, learners show their differences, some can draw and organize the information in their mind flexibly, and then speak it out fluently; others can’t organize the words they want to express in a reasonable and logical way, even though they have mastered much knowledge and are eager to express. One of the important reasons is due to their psychological characteristics.
English speaking is a complicated psychological process. In terms of spoken English teaching in schools, it’s quite essential for teachers and learners to take some important psychological factors into accounts in order to achieve better results in spoken English teaching and learning. This part is a contribution to discuss some important psychological factors concerned.
According to the studies concerning the factors which affect the English speaking, there are motivation, anxiety, extroversion, self-esteem and self-concept.
1.1 Motivation
Brown (1980:35） stated that motivation was an intrinsic power, an emotional promotion, a kind of desire for encouraging people to take action. Through experiment, he concluded that there were three basic kinds of motivation---intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and integrated motivation in general learning theory. It is clear that these three kinds of motivation don’t exclude each other. Most learners are motivated by these reasons in the oral English learning.
In learning spoken English, just like other fields of human learning, motivation is the crucial force that determines whether a learner embarks on a spoken task at all, how much energy he devotes to it and how long he preserves. It is a complex phenomenon and includes many components: the individual’s drive, need for achievement and success, curiosity, desire for stimulation and new experience, and so on.
It is clear that learners with high and favorable motivation for speaking often try to devote themselves into English speaking. In English class, they are active, and cooperate with teachers’ activities positively. Out of class, they take any opportunity for imitating, practicing and speaking English. They are of strong volition (Ames C,1992:261-271) and will, of clear learning purpose. Thereby, they are easier and more proficient to achieve success in spoken English .In their turn, the success encourages higher motivation.
On the contrary, the author observes that many students always keep silent no matter English class or out of class. This shows that they lack of motivation for speaking English. (Ames, 1992:261-271) If they always keep this attitude, it is hard for them to concentrate attention in class and it is impossible to improve their spoken English. The establishment of high motivation is indispensable to become a good English learner and speaker. As Rod Ellis（1994.）said , “The clever leaner with high motivation is the most successful learner.”
1.2 Anxiety
Anxiety is a sense of worry, a kind of subconscious scare ( Steinberg, F. & E. Horwits, 1986: 136). Many researchers studied the effects of anxiety on the English speaking. Chen Jie（陈颉,1997:15-18）, the professor from Nanjing University, adopted the form of questionnaire, titled “Anxiety on the Students’ Learning English”. After analysis of the results, he concluded that classroom anxiety included “trait anxiety” and “environmental anxiety”. The two kinds of anxiety can enforce or reduce each other’s effects in English speaking classroom. Furthermore, they are both bad for the improvement of students’ spoken English. In this aspect, the “environmental anxiety” is sounder than the “trait anxiety”. He pointed that teachers were the main factor to cause the classroom anxiety and suggested that they should pay much attention to their teaching attitude and behavior to create a happy and animate learning environment.
Similar to Professor Chen’s view, Littlewood（2000） claimed that if anxiety rose above a certain level, it was an obstacle to the learning process.
In the English classroom, learners are often asked to perform in a state of ignorance and dependence, which may engender feelings of helplessness. They have to produce unfamiliar sounds in front of an audience. When they don’t perform adequately, they may be subjected to comment and correction. Most of them do not possess the linguistics tools to express their own individuality. In any cases, there is usually little opportunity, since the teacher dominates the interaction. In a similar way, the second language environment may cause learners to feel anxious and constrained. With their limited communicative competence, they may have difficulties in relating to others and presenting themselves adequately.
However, the level of anxiety felt by learners is only partly a result of the nature of the situation itself. It is also the result of personal factors. For example, some learners become anxious more quickly than others, whatever the situation is; others may have had experiences of failure which cause them to become anxious quickly in classroom learning situation.
From above, we can conclude that too much anxiety or over anxiety hinders learning process as well as the English speaking, but it seems that a certain amount of it can stimulate learner to invest more energy in their task. However, the optional level also depends on various factors, such as the learners’ ability and their other psychological qualities.
1.3 Self-esteem
Self-esteem refers to the individual’s evaluation on himself, an attitude towards his or her ability, value, and achievement. It is originated from individual’s experience and the judge of the outside world. (McDonough, 1981)
Comparatively speaking, learners with high self-esteem are full of the sense of self-confidence and self-affirmation. In English learning, they can evaluate reasonably and objectively their own English level as well as the other learning skills---listening, reading, writing, speaking and translating. A study by Adelaide Hayed (Heyde,1979) found that self-esteem was associated with the English speaking, and that learners with high self-esteem could have more chances to achieve speaking proficiency. Presumably, they are less likely to feel threatened when speaking or communicating in English or in an unfamiliar situation. They may also be more ready to risk making mistakes or projecting a reduced image of them.
1.4 Extroversion
It is often suggested that an extrovert learner is easier in learning foreign language learning than an introvert learner. However, when Naiman ( Naiman, et al, 1978) investigated whether good language learner scored higher in a standard test of extroversion, their results were negative. A more positive result emerged from a study by Richard Tucker et al. ( Naiman, et al, 1978), who found that success in second language learning seemed to correlate with learners’ scores on some traits often associated with extroversion, such as assertiveness and adventure.
Irrespective of actual English learning ability, learners with an outgoing personality may enjoy certain advantages in English speaking. Their active nature may promote them to open their mouth in class or out of class. They are willing to be involved in more spoken activities and social interaction, attract more attention from their teachers and be less inhibited when asked to display their proficiency (e.g. in oral interviews). They may perform more confidently in communication situations when they using English.
1.5 Self-concept
Self-concept is defined as the integration of subjective evaluation and self- consciousness, which is about a person’s value of existence. This kind of self-evaluation and self-consciousness is generally based on his personal characteristics. (Cook, 1978:73-89)
Self-concept is an integrated psychological factor, and it determines the four previous psychological factors and is reflected in the four factors--- motivation, anxiety, self-esteem and extroversion. Self-concept plays a great role in promoting students’ motivation, in decreasing their anxiety, in increasing their self-esteem. A positive self-concept is the base of the establishment of the healthy psychological quality. In English class, a student’s self-concept is corrected closely with his own psychological quality, the relationship between teachers and students, and the relationship among students. If teachers and students have good impression on a learner, he would be more self-confident, and try his best to achieve more with higher motivation.
Self–image is a kind of self-concept, referring to a person’s subjective evaluation and consciousness about his learning ability, his own image impressing others. (Corder, 1975:108-201) In spoken English learning, the evaluation of self-image determines whether the previous four factors can lead to the pleasant result or not. If a student had a passive attitude towards his self-image, when using English, he would be very timid; he would perform embarrassedly and anxiously; he would keep silent or be forced to take part in the classroom speaking activities so that they lose many practice chances. However, if a student had an active self-evaluation, he would have a clear and fitting learning objective; he would seek out optimistically opportunities for going in for activities in English.
We can conclude that active self-evaluation is of great importance in improving students’ English level. To a great extent, the students’ proficient learning skills rely on the proper evaluation of their self-image.
2.The Psychology-Based Teaching Approach in Spoken English
On the basis of the psychological factors talked in previous part, it is necessary for us to set up the “psychology-based” teaching approach. Here, “psychology” is the specialization of students’ psychology. Because the English speaking is affected by the psychological factors talked above, psychology-based teaching approach requires such principles as follows:
(1). Student-centered classroom
(2). Active class atmosphere
(3). Dynamic participants
(4). Friendly and sympathetic relationship among all the members in class.
The purposes of these principles are to create a pleasant and animated learning environment, to encourage the students to turn to be the master of their own learning, to motivate their interest and learning motivation, to promote them to be engaged in the English speaking activities, to reduce their anxiety, to increase their self-esteem and to encourage them to form the positive self-evaluation. Thereby, the students are more likely to expose themselves to English to develop their potential in English speaking.
Concluded from the previous states, in spoken English teaching practice, the realization of these principles are also the process to achieve the interaction of psychological factors and the English speaking. In the following part, it argues concretely that how these principles of the psychology-based teaching approach are put into teaching practice.