A Correlational Study between Teachers’Emotional Factors and Class Interactive Teaching Efficacy〔*〕

Xie Yan

(Department of Foreign Languages Ming De College of Northern Polytechnical University，Xi’an Shaanxi710124)

1．Need for the study

Nowadays，many classes are still teacher － centered;students are busy jotting down lecture notes，with no or little active participation and personal contribution．Why do teachers and students accept such a teaching and learning model，even if they know an interactive approach is adoptable?Why they lack of class interaction?Research questions have been raised in this study．This study also considers how teachers’emotional factors affect students’emotion in class，and how they influence the teaching efficiency．In addition，this study attempts to investigate what are the very factors that are functioning behind class interaction?Can a fixed formula and digital results like pure science be found to describe the relationship between teachers，students and emotional factors in teaching process?

Ⅱ．Research question

Inspired by the western and domestic research results in affective variables，the author begins from the class interaction and the teachers’characters to explore the relatedness of the L2 teachers’affective variables to classroom teaching efficiency by means of supposition and experiments．The author puts forward supposition in the thesis:

The students’achievements have the direct proportion with the degree of their teachers’appreciations．

Ⅲ．Design

1．Subjects

The subjects chosen for the study were 105 freshmen(48 were female，57 were male)and 12 English teachers．30 students(21 were female，9 were male)of English major and one female intensive reading English teacher participated in the research from November，2012 to December，2013．The students’age ranged from18 to 20(with an average of 18．8)．The author explicitly explained the purpose and the process of the entire research to them．They volunteered to participate，giving them fair chances of participation or nonparticipation．

2．Instruments

The author uses SPSS19．0 to analyze collected data and Metlab to draw the diagrams．SPSS19．0 is statistic software and Met lab is simulation software．

The author uses Class Circs Audit Formula(Appendix IV)designed by herself to record teacher’s behavior．The formula mainly consists of four parts:1．Teacher’s emotion．2．Teaching contents．3．Teaching methods．4．Teaching effects．Each part consists of several indexes to testify teacher’s class behavior．Meanwhile，a digital voice recorder was used with the consent of the teacher．

3．Data Collection

In quantitative study，firstly，12 English teachers filled in the questionnaires．The author classified them into three different emotional characters．4 teachers were belonging to sane，5 teachers were belonging to balance，and 3 teachers were belonging to impetuous．

Secondly，the author chose three teachers who were separately belonging to three kinds of emotional characters．They were intensive reading teachers and their students were in the same grade．

Thirdly，105 students of 3 classes filled in the questionnaires，with the purpose of data analysis convenience，the author chose 10 students of each class randomly to participate in next research．And also the author took their questionnaires as selected data to do data analysis．

Fourthly，the author took the selected 27 students’quiz score into consideration with the purpose of knowing the relationship between teachers’different emotional characters and teaching efficiency．

In qualitative study，the real classroom observation was carried out．There were 30 students in the class．It involved 80－minute－long classroom observation with a 10 －minute break．The observer sat in the real classroom to collect data without class interference．The Sheet was used to record the behaviors of the teacher．Because of no video camera，and also because the observer had met the students before the observation many times inside and outside of the classroom，it seemed that both students and the teacher were not nervous．The interviews were conducted on the day of the real classroom observation，in which the observer discussed with the teacher and her students about the classroom behaviors in order to give them time to reflect on classroom interactions．

4．Data Analysis

The author input the data into a database established with SPSS19．0 and employed Metlab to draw diagrams．To guarantee an accuracy of the data entry，the SPSS file was double －checked and confirmed so that any missing data and outliners were identified．

Analysis ofvariance(ANOVA)isageneral methodforstudying sampled － data relationships．The method enables the difference between two or more sample means to be analyzed，which is achieved by subdividing the total sum of squares．One way ANOVA is the simplest case．The purpose is to test for significant differences between class means，and this is done by analyzing the variances．Incidentally，if we are only comparing two different means then the method is the same as the t－ test for independent samples．The basis of ANOVA is the partitioning of sums of squares into betweenclass(SSb)and within －class(SSw)．It enables all classes to be compared with each other simultaneously rather than individually;it assumes that the samples are normally distributed．The one way analysis is calculated in three steps，first the sum of squares for all samples，then the within class and between class cases．For each stage the degrees of freedom df are also determined，where df is the number of independent“pieces of information”that go into the estimate of a parameter．These calculations are used via the Fisher statistic to analyze the null hypothesis．The null hypothesis states that there are no differences between means of different classes，suggesting that the variance of the within－class samples should be identical to that of the between－class samples(resulting in no between－class discrimination capability)．It must however be noted that small sample sets will produce random fluctuations due to the assumption of a normal distribution．If dij is the sample for the ith class and jth data point then the total sum of squares is defined as:

with degrees of freedom:

Where D is the number of data points(assuming equal numbers of data points in each class)and S is the number of classes and GM is the grand mean:

The second stage determines the sum of squares for the within class case，defined as:

Where Mi is the ith class mean determined by:

and the within class df is:

The sum of squares for the between class case is:

with the corresponding df of:

Defining the total degrees of freedom dft and the total sum of squares SSt as:

Finally if MSSb is the mean square deviations(or variances)for the between class case and MMSw is the reciprocal for the within class case then:

It is now possible to evaluate the null hypothesis using the Fisher or FF Fisher statistic，defined as:

If F ＞ ＞1 then it is likely that differences between class means exist．These results are then tested for statistical significance or P － value，where the P－value is the probability that a variant would assume a value greater than or equal to the value observed strictly by chance．If the P －value is small(e．g．P ＜0．01 or P ＜1%)then this implies that the means differ by more than would be expected by chance alone．By setting a limit on the P －value，(i．e．1%)a critical F value can be determined．The critical value Fcrit is determined(via standard lookup tables)through the between－class(dfb)and within －class(dfw)df values．Values of F greater than the critical value denote the rejection of the null hypothesis，which prompts further investigation into the nature of the differences of the class means．In this way ANOVA can be used to prune a list of features．The F value gives a reliable test for the null hypothesis，but it cannot indicate which of the means is responsible for a significantly low probability．To investigate the cause of rejection of the null hypothesis post－hoc or multiple comparison tests can be used．These examine or compare more than one pair of means simultaneously．Here we use the Scheffe post－ hoc test．This tests all pairs for differences between means and all possible combinations of means．The test statistic FsFs Scheffe post－hoc test value is:

Where i and j are the classes being compared and ni and Mi are the number of samples and mean of class i，respectively．If the number of samples(data points)is the same for all classes then ni=nj=D．The test statistic is calculated for each pair of means and the null hypothesis is again rejected if Fs is greater than the critical value Fcrit，as previously defined for the original ANOVA analysis．This Scheffe post hoc test is known to be conservative，which helps to compensate for spurious significant results that occur with multiple comparisons．The test gives a measure of the difference between all means for all combinations of means．

In terms of classification，large F statistic values do not necessarily indicate useful features．They only indicate a well spread feature space，which for a large dataset is a positive attribute．It suggests that the feature has scope or“room”for more classes to be added to the dataset．Equally，features with smaller F values(but greater than the critical values Fcrit)may separate a portion of the dataset，which was previously“confused”with another portion．Adding this new feature，increasing the feature space dimensions，may prove beneficial．In this manner，features which appear“less good”(i．e．lower F statistic values than alternative features)may，in fact，prove useful in terms of classification．

Ⅳ．Results and discussion

To deal with anxiety stemming from students personal and interpersonal factors，students are expected to recognize their irrational beliefs or fears．If they can do so they will be able to interpret anxiety－provoking situations in more realistic ways and eventually opt to approach rather than avoid an anxiety － evoking situation．To recognize their own fears about English learning，students can verbalize the fears and then write them down．In this way，they can see that they are not alone in their anxieties and the problem of English anxiety is common for their fellow students，but it does not always become a lasting trouble．Journal writing is another good way to reduce anxiety．From their journals students can learn to recognize feelings of inadequacy so they may arrive at more realistic expectations．Some low － proficiency and less self－confident students may need to exert extra efforts such as to participate in some form of supplementary instruction，work with a tutor or practice self－talk so as to improve their English competence．Increased ability will build up their self－confidence and thus reduce their anxiety．

Students usually have been strongly influenced consciously or unconsciously by long years of negative self－talk“I will never be good at English”，“I cannot avoid making mistakes”，and so on．As a matter of fact，a healthy self－confidence and improved self－ esteem is most important．They should be encouraged to tell themselves“I can do that well”，“I can learn this”，or“I will succeed next time”，and the like，such positive self－ talk helps to replace feelings of limitation by those of empowerment．Self－ talk can be particularly useful for coping with state anxiety．To relieve test anxiety students can utter self－ talk as“I am not nervous at all”，“I breathe smoothly”，and“take it easy，I will solve it step by step”．To relieve performance anxiety，students can talk to themselves as“I am better than before”，“if I keep on trying，I will succeed”．Utterance such as“we are all friends，they will not laugh at me”can reduce the oral communication anxiety．Proper self－talk removes students’affective obstacles in English learning and also brings them benefits of building a healthy concept and developing a positive and optimistic attitude toward life in the long run．

What the author has tried and endeavored in this thesis is to investigate the relativity between English teachers’emotional factors and class interactive teaching efficiency．This study unfolds a general picture of pervasive emotional factors in teacher’s English teaching and student’s English learning．The information resulted from both quantitative and qualitative survey may be helpful for both English teachers as well as English learners to be more aware of the negative role that non－interactive plays in English classroom in China．With the identified potential sources and the recognized manifestations，it would be easier for English teachers to help their students who are interfered with unnecessary levels of anxiety to be free from this harmful emotional obstacle and have better classroom outcomes．Besides，it would be beneficial to students in coping with their emotional barrier by employing cer-tain coping strategies．To sum up，the thesis aims at raising teacher and student’s awareness to emotional factors in English learning and calling for more attempts to cope with emotional factors in English learning．

Ⅴ．Conclusion

It is important for students to employ some suitable learning strategies．A lot of studies have proved that using learning strategies properly influences learning consequences directly and that good language learners are also good users of teaming strategies．If equipped with suitable learning strategies，students will find it much easier to learn English，therefore reduce their anxiety．

For teachers，the first step to lessen classroom tension is to create a learner－ friendly，supportive and secure classroom atmosphere．It is equally essential for the teacher to help to improve the self－esteem and self－confidence of students by making it clear to students those language anxiety episodes can be transient and do not inevitably develop into a lasting problem and by providing multiple opportunities for classroom success in English．In English class，the teacher may give students permission to use English with less perfect performance and give sincere praise that is meaningful to students．In the interaction between the teacher and students，students are most sensitive to the teacher’s response to them．They are always aspiring for feedback from the teacher．Proper and effective feedback will become great motive to students and stimulate their interest in learning．Feedback such as approval and encouragement will help to smooth the interaction between the teacher and students．Meanwhile，teachers’sense of humor and non －verbal communication such as gestures，postures and facial expressions can help to transform the formal atmosphere into a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere．What’s more，teachers are expected to bear classroom goals in minds and help students develop strategies to meet those goals．

Notes:

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〔2〕Ehrman，M．E．，Leaver，B．L．＆ Oxford，R．L．，A brief overview of individual differences in second language learning，System，2003，31，pp．313 －330．

〔3〕Joseph W．P．，Strategies for effective study of foreign languages，Learning Journal of Research in Personality，2002，13，pp．363 －385．

〔4〕Lafford，B．A．，The effect of context of learning on the use of communication strategies by learners of Spanish as a second language，Studies in Second Language Acquisition，2004，26，pp．201 －225．

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〔6〕于秋潭:《英语教师的情感因素在课堂教学中的应用》，《考试周刊》，2010年，第121－122页。

〔7〕盛普聪:《英语教师正面语言行为对学生学习情感因素的影响》，《语数外学习(英语教育)》，2012年，第91页。

〔8〕朱红梅:《英语教师课堂互动反思研究》，博士论文，2014年。