II。 The Definition and Classification of Affectivity

2。1 The Definition of Affectivity

The term “affectivity” is used interchangeably with “affect”, and its implication is wide-ranging and rather implicit。 It often refers to a general definition of a series of psychological phenomena, such as feeling, inner experience, need, desire, value pursuit, and so on, which serves as a key part of the process of an organism’s interaction with stimuli。 Arnold defines it as “aspects of emotion, feelings, mood or attitudes” (470)。 Stevick claims that one’s “affect” towards a particular thing or action or situation or experience is how that thing or action or situation or experience fits in with one’s needs or purposes, and its resulting effect on one’s emotions… affectivity is a term that refers to the purposive and emotional sides of a person’s reactions to what is going on (55)。 

2。2 The Classification of Affectivity

Affective factors which influence language learning can be pided as Arnold did from two perspectives: a language learner as an inpidual and a language learner participant in a socio-cultural situation (8)。 The former is students’ inpidual affective factors including motivation, self-confidence, anxiety, inhibition, etc。 The latter is affective factors in the teaching environment, that is, affective factors between learners and between learners and teachers including empathy, communication within and beyond class, cross-cultural awareness。

2。2。1 Inpidual Factors

(1) Motivation

Motivation is a kind of internal drive that pushes people to achieve their goals by doing something。 The motivation of the inpidual learner is of great significance to the success of language learning。 In the beginning, students are easily motivated to learn English by their teachers and interesting teaching contents and they may have great passion to participate in class activities。 However, their motivation will gradually decrease, and they will even be tired of the same pattern and training as time passes by。 Thus cultivation of students’ motivation is far more than arousing interests。 It involves persistent interest and investing time and energy to strive to achieve certain goals。 Gardner defines motivation to learn a second language (L2) as “the extent to which the inpidual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and the satisfaction experienced in this activity” (82-83)。 Brown defines inpidual’s motivation as such: Motivation is commonly thought of as an inner drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that moves one to a particular action。 Or, in more technical terms, motivation refers to the choices people make as to what experiences or goals they will approach or avoid, and the degree of effort they will exert in that respect (152)。 

According to Gardner and Lambert, motivation was pided into two orientations: integrative and instrumental (208)。 Motivation is formed on the basis of inpiduals’ needs (Pi 255)。 Generally there are four kinds of such needs: survival needs, developmental needs, working needs and educational needs。 The first two sorts of needs help form instrumental motivation。 Learners with such motivation show real interests in culture and lifestyle of target language community so as to survive and develop in the target culture, communicate with members in that community and integrate themselves into the target culture。 The last two kinds of needs can help produce instrumental motivation, which stresses the pragmatic aspects of learning a second language, such as hunting a job, passing an exam or improving their social status。 Learners with such motivation can find that their desire of language learning will remarkably reduce once their needs can be met in some way or their direct objectives have been achieved。 Researches have shown that foreign language learners with integrative motivation are more possible to be successful than those with instrumental motivation in that they show greater passion and stronger willpower toward language learning。 论文网