Ⅱ.Theoretical Foundation
Views on learning vary from person to person. There are three different views in this paper and they are Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory, the Affective Filter Hypothesis and the Input Hypothesis.
2.1 Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory
As we all know, Jean Piaget was a psychologist known for his famous work in child development. His theory of cognitive development has been proved influential in many different areas and actually has a profound influence on education. There are four developmental stages described in Piaget’s theory: sensorimotor stage (from birth to age two); preoperational stage (from age two to seven); concrete operational stage (from ages seven to eleven); formal operational stage (from ages eleven to sixteen and onwards). In the last stage, he considered that children had abstract thought and were able to think logically in their minds and could now utilize meta-cognition which refers to knowledge of your own thoughts and the factors that influence your thinking. Junior high school students are just right in the period, and oral English teaching should be based on what students already knew and engage students in learning activities. The teachers should design environment and interaction with students to foster creative and critical students.