The Effects of English Teachers’ Psychological Suggestion on English Learning of

Abstract：Since the 80s of 20th century，many experts have gradually realized that learners are often affected by various factors of suggestions in the process of second language acquisition，among which English Teachers’ Psychological Suggestion（TPS）is one of the most important suggestion factors. Although in recent years，more and more teachers in China begin to pay attention to the impact on the students’ English learning which is caused by psychological hints，the study is still in its infancy stage. What they achieved is only in some endeavors，which lacks the solid theoretical foundation. Moreover，few senior high school students are regarded as the subjects of the study. The paper is intended to understand the effects of English TPS on English learning of senior high school students，explore the possible effects on aspects of students’English learning，and put forward some suggestions.

The paper tends to test whether TPS availably exist. At the same time，TPS provides teachers with theoretical foundation in teaching.

The main goal of the thesis is to encourage the English teachers to apply TPS in senior English teaching in the hope of offering a new perspective for exploring a more effective teaching method for English learning of students in Senior High School. The fact that TPS is easy to operate decides to popularize in English teaching. Thus TPS has a great practical significance.

Keywords： Teachers’ Psychological Suggestion；senior high school students；English learning；

一、The Station of English Learning of Students in Senior High School

50 first year students of No.9 Middle School in Xinjiang Urumqi are collected as the target students. Based on the previous research achievements，the questionnaire and one-on-one interviews are used to analyze pre-experiment and post-experiment of 50 students’ English learning，including the interest，anxiety，initiative and self-confidence of English learning. According to the analysis of the questionnaire，interview and students’ English achievement，English TPS in senior high school has a positive effect on the interest，initiative and confidence of students’ English learning. At the same time，to some extent，it reduces the anxiety of students’ English learning. Then the paper proceeds with the further analysis of nearly one year’ students’achievements after applying Teachers’ Psychological Suggestion. The result shows that students’ English achievements have been obviously improved. With the help of the previous studies and the present paper，it comes up with the suggestions how to apply TPS in teaching.

There are four aspects of applying Teachers’ Psychological Suggestion in English teaching（Zhang Ning，2008）. The first one is language suggestion which emphasizes applying affirmative language to the students，making them more interested in English learning. The information such as “You are clever”，“Well done” are often passed on them by various ways，which can make the students feel confident. Therefore，the English teachers should often use appropriate language to suggest students in English teaching，especially in class.

The second one is expression suggestion. Expression suggestion means that the English teachers use facial expression to suggest students，which can encourage them to study English and have low anxiety in English learning. The teachers use expression suggestion in class，such as wearing a smile on their faces，which makes students feel relax.

The third one is mood suggestion. Mood suggestion means that the English teachers use active mood to suggest students，which can make them to form positive attitudes to English learning and to actively speak English in class. Then the students who have positive attitudes to English learning can overcome difficulties and fill self-confidence in English learning. Before the class，the teachers tell the students “I’m very happy to meet you” or “I like all of you”，which can make students more interested in English learning.

The last one is homework evaluation suggestion. Homework evaluation suggestion refers that the English teachers use the right ways to evaluate the students’ homework. The English teachers should depend on the characteristics of the students to evaluate their homework. The positive evaluations can make students more interested in English learning and gain interest in English. The words such as“clever”，“Well done” are often occurred in their homework，which can make the students feel confident and interested in English learning.

Rosenthal who did an experiment in primary school found that active teachers’ psychological suggestion had a positive effect on students’ learning. Rosenthal called the experiment as Pygmalion Effect.

Song Jiancheng（2005）has studied the application of Psychological Suggestion in class teaching . The result of questionnaire and interview shows that Psychological Suggestion has a positive effect on students’ learning，especially mood suggestion and homework evaluation suggestion.

Huang Yunfeng（2002）focused on expression suggestion in English teaching. According to the analysis result of the questionnaire，he found that expression suggestion can effectively reduce students’anxiety in English learning.

Jiang Liqiong（2004）studied how to use positive hints in educational practice in college English teaching. The positive hints consist of confirmative language hints and encouraging expression hints. In educational practice of the college，the teachers’ appropriate use of the positive hints can make students feel confident in English learning.

According to the study result of the paper，TPS is consistent with the previous researches that TPS has a positive effect on students’ English learning. Firstly，TPS is consistent with Affective Filter Hypothesis. TPS makes students interested and confident in English learning. Secondly，TPS has human suggestibility. Specially，mood suggestion makes students feel that their teachers pay attention to them all the time. Thirdly，TPS is consistent with Pygmalion Effect. The active suggestions make the students have low anxiety in English learning.

三、The Application of TPS in English Teaching

The teacher has been observed to how to apply TPS for nearly a year. Zhang Baohuan，27 years old，is the English teacher of Class Five Grade One in No.9 Middle School in Urumqi. The teacher has taught senior high school students English with TPS for nearly a year，which has influenced students’ English learning.

Before class，the teacher often uses mood suggestion to the students in English learning. The teacher’s own pleasant feeling affects the students，which raises students’ pleasant feeling to excite students. When the teacher goes into the classroom with a smile and positive mood，the students will feel warm and happy. The teacher always expresses how happy her mood is，such as “Today I am very happy to meet you” and “I am very happy to stand here”.

During the class，the teacher always uses language suggestion and expression suggestion. When the students answer a question，the teacher gives them appropriate encouragement，for example，“You are clever”，“Good”，“wonderful”，“Good job” and so on. The affirmative language of the teacher makes students positive and interested in English learning. Here gives an example of a girl. Men Meng who is a shy girl seldom speaks English in class. In a practice class，she is requested to answer a question that is “using ‘there be’ makes a sentence”. At the beginning，she thinks for a moment and says：“Sorry，I don’t know.” The teacher says：“You are a clever girl and you should believe yourself.” Then the girl is encouraged to say：“There is a kind teacher in our class.” Hearing what Men Meng says，the teacher happily says：“Well done，clever girl.” In addition，applying expression suggestion is a good chance to make the class atmosphere easy. When the teacher’s face is moderate and warm，the students can reduce the psychological pressure to a minimum which has produced in the learning process.

After class，the teacher frequently uses homework evaluation suggestion. Here gives an example of English word homework. To the high level students，the teacher puts forward a higher request to their homework，such as “I believe you have the ability to remember the whole words in a unit. Come on.” For the middle，the teacher firstly encourages them and then points out their mistakes in homework. For the low level students，the teacher often encourages them to remember words as many as they can. The teacher uses different ways according to different levels of students，which encourages students to gain confidence in English learning.

The teacher has applied Teachers’ Psychological Suggestion to students for nearly one year，which has a positive effect on students’English learning. Now，most students are interested in English learning，low anxiety in English learning，actively speaking English in class and confidence in English learning.

As for the effect of the TPS，the teacher thinks that TPS has a positive effect on students’ English learning. At the sane time，the teacher adopted three suggestions in the experiment，including language suggestion，expression suggestion and action suggestion.

Here gives language suggestion and expression suggestion as examples. Language suggestion：different language gives students different impact. In class，when the students answer a question，the English teacher）gives them appropriate encouragement，for example，“Good”，“Very good”，“Wonderful”，“Excellent”，“You are clever” and so on. Here gives an example of a boy，who has low interest，high anxiety in English learning. In a practice class，other students had finished most exercises，while he only did three questions. At that time the teacher said，“Well-done！ You have done three questions though just a little slower. If you will do more exercise，you will do it faster and better”. As long as the student has a little bit of progress，the teacher should praise him without delay. To the student，this is positive and it gives a hint that he still has the potential of learning better.

Expression suggestion：applying expression suggestion is a good chance to make the class atmosphere easy. When the teacher’s face was warm and caring，the students felt relaxed in English learning，which would reduce the psychological pressure to a minimum.

According to the the application of the TPS，the teacher says that there are four aspects of changes in students’ English learning. Under applying TPS for nearly a year，most of the students have been higher interest，lower anxiety，more speaking English in class and higher confidence in English learning. From my observation，when the English teacher gives them psychological suggestion，the students become very exciting. Besides，there are more students handing in their homework than what they are before. Furthermore，the students are more to admire teacher，more to be intimate with teacher，to trust teacher，thus they have the positive to determination to learn English.

四、 Main findings of the study

From the experiment of applying Teachers’ Psychological Suggestion to English learning of senior high school students，it shows that Teachers’ Psychological Suggestion has a positive effect on English learning of students. In addition，after applying Teachers’Psychological Suggestion to students’ English learning，the students’achievements have been improved. To senior high school students，there are four aspects of English learning affected by Teachers’Psychological Suggestion，including English learning interest，anxiety in English learning，speaking English in class and confidence in English learning. Under the Teachers’ Psychological Suggestion，the students have higher interest，lower anxiety，more speaking English in class and higher confidence in English learning.

五、 Limitation for the Research and Suggestion for the Future

Study

There are two limitations of the research. Firstly，there are probably other aspects of English learning of senior high school students which are affected by Teachers’ Psychological Suggestion，such as motivation and mood in English learning. In the experiment，the research mainly considers four aspects of English learning of senior high school. Secondly，in some way，the research lacks of sufficient data. In the experiment，there are only 100 questionnaires and 5 interviews，which may be not enough to prove that the effects of Teachers’ Psychological Suggestion on the English learning o f senior high school students in Grade One.

Considering the two limitations of the research，there are two suggestions for the future study. On one hand，the researchers should take account into other aspects of English learning of senior high school students affected by Teachers’ Psychological Suggestion，including motivation in English learning，mood in English learning and so on. On the other hand，the researchers should have a large range to collect sufficient data which consists of questionnaires and interviews，instead of only in a school.

Reference

[1]Rosenthal. Pygm alion Effect [M ]. N ew York：1982.

[2] 张宁.初中英语教师心理暗示法对初一学生英语学习的影响[D].湖南：硕士学位论文，湖南大学，2008.

[3] 宋建成.心理暗示在课堂教学中的运用[J]，《职业教育研究》，第2期，2005.

[4] 黄云峰.英语教学中心理暗示的应用[J]，《江西中医学院报》，第3期，2002.

[5] 蒋丽琼.积极暗示在教学中的应用探讨[J]，《常州信息职业技术学院》，第4期，2004.