How to Filter Passive Emotion in English Teaching at Vocational School

盤藹然

【Abstract】Nowadays emotional education is widely used in teaching in order to motivate students positive feeling towards language acquisition. This paper aims at analyzing the function of filtering passive emotions in English teaching at vocational school from the role of attitude， aptitude and language barrier.

【Key words】filter; passive emotion; English teaching; vocational school

1. Introduction

According to the teaching syllabus， the aims of teaching in junior schools are to train students to listen， speak， read and write， to enable them to master the basic skills of speaking and writing in practice; to lay particular emphasis on students reading skills so as to pave the way for their further learning and using the language. For some reasons， students are able to meet the requirement; while other students are below the level. Beginning at different starting line， the difficulty in English teaching at vocational school has existed apparently. Some schools use self-made English teaching materials while other schools use materials written by English teaching division. In order for those who will graduate from vocational school to master the basic skills of listening， speaking， reading and writing in an integrated way， great emphasis should be laid on the students reading skills and laying a good foundation for students learning and application of language or gaining employment. After three years study， some students make great progress; it is interesting to find that part of these students foundation is not really good， however， they are encouraged by certain positive factors i.e. taking part in the exam， preparing themselves for studying abroad， receiving praise from teachers and so on. How to enlarge this part of students？ English teaching filters passive emotions， which shows humanity to the student and shortens the distance between teachers and students. Therefore， English teaching has turned increasingly to the use of emotions.

Emotions are mental feelings. More specifically， emotion has been defined as a “mental state of readiness that arises from cognitive appraisals of events or thoughts has a phenomenological tone， often expressed physical， accompanied by physiological progress， and may result in specific actions to affirm or cope with the emotions.”（Bagozzi， Gopinath， and Nyer1999） Emotional reactions include liking and disliking， but also love， hate， fear， anger， joy， sadness， and so on. If a teacher could know the exact emotions that influence a students studying and measure those emotions more precisely， the teacher might be able to find an extremely effective teaching method.

2. Phenomenon

2.1 Individual student

For the students of vocational school， some of them are not good at English; even sometimes they refuse to learn. Do you know why？ Are they influenced by teachers moods， feelings， emotions， desires and fatigue， such as happy， excited， surprised， sad， upset， sentimental or bored？ Besides all this， there are other factors involved in language acquisition. There have existed some language barriers on the way to a successful acquisition of a target language.

2.1.1 Physical barriers

（1）When the students are too tired， worried， sad， preoccupied.

（2）When the students biological clock is having a rest.

（3）When the students have an ailment or are ill.

（4）When they are suffering emotionally or spiritually from something.

2.1.2 Psychological barriers

（1）When they do not realize their own potentialities.

（2）When they are in disorder psychologically

（3）When they are in low spirits.

It is at least seven years since the students began to study English from primary school. They have been discouraged by examinations， boring words and teachers criticism again and again. Are they still interested in learning English？

2.2 Teachers attitude

Teachers attitude affects students language acquisition to some extent. Some teachers are not willing to teach. They think of their positions as a job not a career. They come to class with a sad look. They often blame their students instead of trying to understand and help them.

Here are some examples about teacher As in-class expressions.

（1） Teacher A often uses the words “foolish， stupid， stubborn， idiot”， when her students cannot answer the questions.

（2） Student A was late for school. Teacher A said， “You are always late.” “You are always careless.”

（3） One day teacher A wore a beautiful dress. When she came to the classroom; Student B expressed her feeling heartily， “How sexy！” Teacher A stared at Student B with a cloudy face. Suddenly the whole class fell silent. Having been criticized， the students are used to behaving well in English class. They dare not say even a word or sleep in Teacher As English class.

2.3 The evaluation system

The evaluation system is not so coherent with the real level of vocational school.

For example， 《中等職業技術學校教學用書英語第二冊》（修訂本）以及《中等職業技術學校教學用書第三冊》（修訂本）both focus on The Passive Voice. There are some consolidation exercises， which are extremely good for further understanding. The students like to do this kind of grammar exercise. Once they understand how to do it， they have a desire to have a try according to the steps. It is helpful to build up students confidence in written exercise. However， they can hardly drill this part in the exam.

3. Approaches

3.1 How to filter students passive emotions

（1） Promote lower anxiety among the students.

（2） Keep the students off the defensive.

（3） Broaden their interests. It is useful to learn in a target language， something familiar to ones own language and culture. If they love music， for example， it is surely easier to learn some English songs.

Our school held the English songs contest last year. A student who was the champion in singing Chinese pop song the year before last year had a strong desire to be the second year champion. However， his English was poor. So he came to me for some advice. We chose a song Tears in Heaven， which is a blue music sung by one of the members of Beatles， Eric Clapton. I told the student about the background knowledge of the song. This song was also written by Eric Clapton who wanted to send a message to his son， “I miss you and I will be tough ever since.”

After I created acquisition-rich situations and supplied good meaningful input， the student understood the context and deduced the song with heavy emotion. After three weeks training， the students pronunciation was better. Finally， he stepped onto the stage confidently and got the champion again. Since then， he studied English harder than ever. When he graduated from vocational school， he chose Business English as a major in the polytechnic college. He writes e-mail to me in English quite often. Encourage the students to be more open to meaningful input and it can strike deeper.

（4）The students are allowed to make individual decisions， as to when they wish to begin speaking the target language， and any of the attempts at speaking are rewarded positively. Errors of any form are not corrected directly. We do not wish students to have an excessive concern for correctness in the early stages of language acquisition， but concentrate themselves on acquisition.

（5）Use good peer pressure to some extent.

Good peer pressure could get you involved in activities like team learning， discussions or competitions.

（6）Arouse students positive emotions.

It is interesting to find that students in Senior Three have to make a choice whether to take part in the exam for further education or gain employment. They are willing to learn by themselves rather than made to learn by teachers. They build up a clear goal and form a team to promote study naturally. However， not all the students can do this. Therefore it is teachers task to guide some of them to set up their goals.

3.2 How to filter teachers passive emotions.

Teachers should keep an active mind and good mood， for teachers behavior affect the students greatly. We take activities in class as a pleasure instead of a must， using different kinds of methods to intricate students interests.

3.3 How to filter passive evaluation system

The evaluation system in English teaching measures a persons ability and knowledge. That is competence of language and communication. Care must be taken in any test to understand who the testees are. Is the evaluation system appropriate for them？ How are the scores to be interpreted？ According to the foundation of vocational school， here I have an immature thought. Can we shorten the cloze and add some exercises such as changing the sentence pattern？ Cloze is the testing of usage of combined grammars and comprehension. It is a little bit difficult for vocational school students. They are interested in changing the sentence pattern and can build up their confidence from it. Avoid using the only one evaluation system. Could we judge students quality not only by their written exam， but also add some testing of communicative competence and extracurricular activities？

4. Conclusion

The relationship between the attitude， motivation， psychological barriers and language acquisition is very complicated. Probably no method will be totally successful in filtering the passive emotions. The aim is to bring down students defensive psychology and lowering their anxiety level of the acquisition situation. We must understand passive emotions in English teaching and instill positive emotions. It can be effective with readers because they draw on students most basic instincts and feelings.

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