The Enlightenment of Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis in TeachingEnglish to

【Abstract】There are many factors that affect English acquisition in the second language acquisition， such as： age， environment， mother tongue interference， culture， cognition， teaching methods/models， affective factors and and so on. The affective factor has the same important status as cognition factor， and it plays an important role in TEYL. This study aims to carry out questionnaire and experiment to identify how the affective filter hypothesis influences the pedagogy and what Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis can enlighten in teaching English to young learners. Through exploring theoretical foundation， the result of the author's experiment shows that affective filter hypothesis theory is an efficient way for the young learners to know how to learn and for the teachers to know how to teach English. In addition， by comparative analysis， the results are obtained from the experiment and questionnaires. The conclusion can be seen that to a large extent， the degree of learners’ motivation， self-confidence and anxiety have influence on the learners. Finally， on the basis of previous studies and the author's own ideas， the majority of suggestions are proposed in the article.

【Key words】Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis； young learner； English

1. Introduction

There are many factors that affect English acquisition in the second language acquisition，age， environment， mother tongue interference， culture， cognition，affective factors and so on. The affective factor is an important part of linguistics， and it has the same important status as cognition factor. It affects the second language acquisition directly and indirectly. Therefore， Affective factors play an important role in TEYL. Whereas， a large amount of young learner English teachers who with particular emphasis on teaching materials， teaching methods and cognitive development of students in teaching reform， ignoring the affective factors of young learners. At the same time， the cognitive factors of language learning and acquiring are more welcomed by researchers in the academic market. On the contrary， the study of affective factors is relatively weak and poor.

According to “Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standard” pointed out： Teaching English to Young Learners must follow the orders for physical and psychological development of the young learner. The young learner must be to stimulate interest and cultivate a positive attitude to learning and acquiring， so that they formed initially the confidence in learning and English acquisition （Ministry of Education of the PRC，2011，Pp.1-27）. Whereas， so many parents have high expectation to their children， majority of parents expected that she/he cannot fail at the beginning line. There are numerous training institutions in the market， the main purpose of the training institutions to a large extent in order to obtain profits . Furthermore， teaching facilities are limited. The great majority of them don’t understand young learner's English instruction theory.The purpose of this paper mainly put forward what the young learner teacher should put the affect and cognition on the same important position in TEYL. Try our best to spend less time to learn more English. This paper will answer the following three questions：

A. How does the affective filter hypothesis influence the pedagogy？

B. What are the enlightenments of Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis in teaching English to young learner？

2. Literature Review

The concept of the second language acquisition ，namely， relate to the systematic study of how one learner acquire a second language successfully to catch up with his /her first language proficiency level.

In the process of the second language acquisition of the degree of cognition that efficiency is restricted to a large extent by the affective factors. Since the 1960s， with the emergence of humanistic psychology， a lot number of domestic and foreign scholars began to pay attention to the role of the affective factor in linguistics.

2.1 The definition of affect

The concept of affective filter is defined as “an internal processing system” to prevent learners from acquiring the language（Dulay&Burt，1977.cited in Gass&Slinker，2008）.Stern pointed out that the impact on the affective filter is as large as that of cognitive factors of language learning， even more serious effects on SLA （Stern，1983，pp.355-365）. The researchers have confirmed that the affective factors development should go to the first place in SLA， affective and cognitive factors should be complemented each other in the second language acquisition process， which become an integral part of the organic. When learners are in a negative state of emotion， the cognitive activities will receive a serious strike in teaching and learning. On the contrary， when learner is in a positive state of affective， cognitive activities have been a great positive impact.

2.2 The definition of motivation

Motivation is an inner driving force of human being heart， which is a kind of affective factor， a desire to urge the learner to take the certain actions to get her/his success and SLA（Brown，1987）.After 12 years of research， Lambert&Gardner have proved that the rational use motivation can help to learn L2 successfully.the motivation is divided into “integrative motivation and instrumental motivation”， integrative motivation is that the learner has a strong interest in the target language community and culture， and expect to participate or join the community where she/he lives in. Instrumental motivation is the learner who takes a conscious purpose to learn the target language. Such as： the entrance exam， looking for work， further study（Lambert & Gardner，1987）.According to numerous literature sources， motivation can be generally divided as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation， intrinsic motivation is free of any ulterior purpose while extrinsic motivation that an explicit purpose is involved. For instance， intrinsic motivation motivates people who will want to learn L2 for her/his own sake， rather than for the “extrinsic” reason that they with integrate into community or classroom which speaks that L2，or wish to benefit of substance （Johnsona， Gardnerb&Sweetserc.2016 pp.805-812）.Motivation was defined by linguist which is the internal driving force that encourages a person to achieve an action. If we want to achieve a goal that is very attractive， and we try our best to achieve it （Harmer，2000）. Harmer's theory had a certain flaw， he claimed that the motivation is a typical tool-based motivation， his thought was not comprehensive.

One week later.The achievement of the experimental group is higher than the control group’s. The comparative data can obviously see that between the data before or after of the control group and the data before of the experimental group without obvious transformation. After experimental group via effective/careful English teaching， 70 percent of learners have high/strong motivation and 86 percent of them have enough confidence to acquire L2.The questionnaire and the experiment have offered enough effective data to prove the affective factors have more or less influence in English teaching and learning.

5. The enlightenment of Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis in TEYL.

5.1 Promoting the Motivation of Children's Learning English

First of all， carefully organize classroom teaching， take a variety of teaching methods， paying attention to static and dynamic alternation， such as： Scenario simulation， role-play， games and TPR and so on in order to inspire young learners’ motivation.The affective filter is posited by Dulay and Burt （1977） act to prevent input from being used for language acquisition， a more detailed explanation has already been made before the literature review. Therefore， English classrooms that encourage low filters are those that promote low anxiety， sufficient self-confidence and strong motivation among young learners that keep them “off”the defensive.（Stevick，1976. Cited in Krashen，1983 p 32）.

5.2 Improve children's confidence in English learning

Self -confidence performers with self-confidence and a good self-image tend to do better， in SLA（Krashen1983，p31）On the one hand ，Actively improve appreciation Education in order to enhance his/her confidence， give them more positive assessment， Shakespeare said “praise is the sunlight that shines on the soul. Without sunlight， we cannot grow.”Therefore， the teacher should not correct too much， but the learner should be given more encouraging， but it also needs to change from error to correct.

5.3 Reduce the anxiety of children learning English

Anxiety is not always a negative factor in English learning， we can assume that if a person doesn’t care at all anything what he/she does， there is little reason to try to do well. On the other hand， if a person given too much concern about failure which can get in the way of success.（Gass&Selinker，2008， p401） the design of the classroom is meant to produce a warm， a pleasant， a comfortable， a beautiful， a roomy and bright environment.

5.4 To develop high quality English teachers for young children

As a young learner English， our teaching status should be appropriate， teacher’s status including their attitude towards young learner.As a teacher， don’t seriously， don't need to be too formal. Try your best to develop your own teaching style and strong linguistic competence.Wedell（2016，handbook） claims language more than is a series of fomulas/one right answer/ one way of “saying things”， need to be able to illustrate use of grammar in a real life contexts if we want to teach it effectively. Teacher should possess knowledgeable professional English proficiency level， learn more about the knowledge of the culture and fluency in English， of course including nice classroom communication skills. The teacher should concern about learning strategies and teaching strategies， update the old-fashion textbook or exercise materials over time. Teacher should know knowledge of young learners’ overall development.

6. Conclusion

This study is about the enlightenment of Krashen’s affective filter in teaching English to young learner， through exploring theoretical foundation and the result of my own experiment show that affective filter hypothesis theory is an efficient way to teach young learner how to learn English and to myself how to teach English， in addition， from the experiment and questionnaires， we can see that the degree of learners’ motivation， self-confidence， anxiety to a large extent have influence to learner. The author expound through literature which relates to the current situation in TEYL in my own context and my own experience. Obtain detailed reality via questionnaires to the data before the experiment and the data after the experiment. After then， get results by comparative analysis. Finally， on the basis of previous studies and the author own idea， the majority of suggestions are proposed in the article. Although many of the recommendations for some of the teachers who have been insignificant， but for myself， After analyzing Krashen’s theory in detail， it will be helpful for my future English teaching， at least in the English teaching module of primary school， after all， it’s the author must grasp general knowledge to teacher how to teach or to learner how to learn /acquire in the second language acquisition.

References：

[1]Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of pulsory eduation English Curriculum Standard，Beijing Normal University Press，pp1-23.